Worcester County Sheriff’s Office getting federal and state grants for body cams

WORCESTER COUNTY, Md. – The Worcester County Sheriff’s Office is receiving federal and state grants that will cover $284,000 of the $411,000 price tag for its body-worn camera program.

“It’s going to leave a total of $127,000 to go out of our regular fiscal cycle, so the grants do come in very handy,” said Worcester County Sheriff Matt Crisafulli.

Crisafulli added that with a state mandate looming, these funds are harder to secure than ever. “Now that we’re closer to the 2025 date, you have a lot of different agencies vying for that particular grant money. So it’s far more competitive now.”

The Worcester County Sheriff’s office began their body cam program in 2023, two years before Maryland would require it.

“We wanted to make sure that when that time came that we had had a couple of years of operational use to have our staff get used to the cameras, work out any kinks or work out any bugs,” Crisafulli said.

He maintains that everyone stands to benefit from the continued use of body cameras, both deputies and the people they serve: “We hold our deputies to a very high standard, and having these body cams can really dispel false complaints that are made, or it can tell the story if one of our deputies acted egregiously or with misconduct.”