TULSA, Okla. — An Oklahoma sheriff’s agency where an ex-reserve deputy fatally shot an unarmed black man in 2015 is applying for a federal grant to outfit 50 of its officers with body-worn cameras.
Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado said Tuesday he’s applying for a 50 percent match grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. The county would have to come up with roughly $50,000 of the equipment cost.
The agency comprising about 250 deputies will know by October if it received the grant. Regalado says deputies will begin field-testing the equipment in the fall.
About two-dozen black people have died after police encounters nationwide in the past several years. The deaths have prompted civil rights groups to call on law enforcement agencies to outfit officers with more body cameras to show transparency.
