Middlesex body cam vote expected Aug. 5

The Middlesex County Board of Supervisors is expected to consider adoption of an expenditure to purchase body-worn cameras for the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Office at the board’s Aug. 5 regular monthly meeting.

On June 16, the supervisors-appointed “Body Camera Committee,” recommended in a letter to County Administrator Matt Walker from Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael T. Hurd that “the study group on body-worn cameras met on April 28 and on May 13. The committee voted in favor of recommending to the board that body-worn cameras be implemented and the board approve the budget request of the sheriff’s office and the commonwealth’s attorney.”

At the July 8 board meeting, Dawn Moore, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Middlesex Branch Unit 7091, Hurd and Jamaica District Supervisor Wayne Jessie encouraged the board to vote to appropriate funds to purchase body cameras.

Supervisors Chairman Don Harris suggested that the matter be considered in August when Hartfield representative Bill Harris was in attendance. “This could end in a 2-2 tie vote and that would kill it,” Don Harris said. “I think the full board should be here for this.”

Reasons for waiting

Middlesex County is one of only 15 Virginia counties where police do not wear body-worn cameras. Back in 2022, Middlesex supervisors took the advice of Middlesex Sheriff David Bushey and delayed purchase of cameras until renovation of the Lewis B. Puller Vocational Center building at Cooks Corner into a new sheriff’s headquarters was complete. The sheriff indicated in 2022 there was no where to store cameras in the old sheriff’s office building at Saluda and Middlesex was not eligible for state grant funds to purchase cameras until a new sheriff’s office building was completed.

In March 2025, with the new sheriff’s office nearly complete, supervisors learned it would cost nearly $200,000 annually to administer use of the cameras — plus the cost of the cameras. This included the hiring of an assistant commonwealth’s attorney to review film from the cameras at a cost of $100,000 in salary and benefits.

Supervisors voted on March 25, 2025 to allow a $20,000 grant to lapse that would have gone towards purchase…