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Bandwidth issues means fewer body cameras for Sanford PD

SANFORD, Fla. — An effort by Sanford police to be more transparent has hit a technical snag.

The Sanford Police Department bought 20 body cameras for their officers, but only half of them have been put to use.

Channel 9's Karla Ray found the high-tech cameras are sitting on a shelf and won't be able to be used until upgrades are made.

The department spent more than $40,000 to buy 20 cameras in February, but only 10 officers on the force have been equipped with them so far.

Capt. Jim McCauliffe said when the new police department was built, technology was an afterthought. Now there's not enough bandwidth in the department's system to handle more than 10 camera streams at a time.

"It'll be an overload if we put them all out at once," he said.

The cameras give invaluable evidence, showing everything the officer sees both through a livestream and a recording.

"You can track exactly what is going on while the officer is engaged with whatever he gets engaged, in a chase or an arrest, a confrontation," said McCauliffe.

McCauliffe insists there was no way to know that the current system wouldn't handle all 20 camera streams ahead of time, and the department is working with the city's IT department to get it fixed.

"Like everything, it takes time to build the system, and this is a new system," said McCauliffe.

There is no word yet on how much it will cost to upgrade the system.