Conversations were reinvigorated Wednesday about whether police officers should be required to wear body cameras after bystander Feidin Santana recorded video of a white North Charleston police officer firing eight shots into the back of a black man, 50-year-old Walter Lamer Scott. The officer, Michael Thomas Slager, has since been fired from the agency and has been charged with murder.
Since February 2014, the Aiken area has been under fire after a former North Augusta Public Safety, who is white, shot 68-year-old Earnest Satterwhite Sr., who is black. The officer, Justin Gregory Craven, 25, was charged Tuesday with discharging a firearm into a vehicle while occupied, and was booked into the Edgefield County detention center.
The City of North Augusta last month agreed to pay nearly $1.2 million to Satterwhite's estate to settle a wrongful-death suit filed by his brother, Anthony. Anthony sued the City of North Augusta, North Augusta Public Safety, Edgefield County and the Edgefield County Sheriff's Office for actual, consequential and punitive damages.
Local requests for body cameras
All Aiken County law enforcement agencies have requested funding in the fiscal year 2015-16 budget to pay for body cameras.
The Aiken County Sheriff's Office is requesting about $105,000 to go toward 136 body cameras with a server expansion, according to Aiken County Administrator Clay Killian. Those body cameras also would be equipped with microphones.
On Tuesday, Aiken County Council will hear several department heads' budget needs, which will include the Aiken County Sheriff's Office, and the crux of those discussions will be about how to fund the body cameras.
The Sheriff's Office budget, which would carry funds for body cameras, has grown at least $1.6 million since the 2011-12 fiscal year budget, Killian said. The Sheriff's Office budget sat at just less than $12 million in fiscal 2015-16.
Killian said Aiken County Sheriff Michael Hunt's budget is not "extravagant;" Hunt has had to add dollars to keep up with competing salaries, equipment upgrades and adding additional deputies to his force.
In February, the North Augusta City Council agreed to purchase nearly $40,000 worth of body cameras - $740 per unit. The cameras will be paid for through Capital Projects Fund, according to North Augusta City Administrator Todd Glover.
The City also will pay an additional $7,000 to $8,000 for software, storage of the video and charging docks.
Aiken Interim City Manager Roger LeDuc said there is several thousands of dollars in Aiken's Public Safety department budget for the next fiscal year. This is the first time the Aiken department has requested any funds for body cameras. That item will be up for City Council approval within the next few months.
After the shooting in North Charleston on Saturday, the Charleston mayor has now ordered body cameras to be worn by every officer on the force.
After this most recent event, which followed those in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York City, body cameras are "just going to become a way of life," LeDuc said.
"All officers will have body cameras eventually," LeDuc said. "Unfortunately, a lot of these smaller towns with less funding may have to seek out grants needed for all officers nationwide."
Where the laws stand
Two Lowcountry legislators - Charleston Democrats Rep. Wendell Gilliard and Sen. Marlon Kimpson - motivated by these recent events, have called on their peers to move forward and stop stalling on two bills requiring law enforcement to wear body cameras.
S.C. Rep. Bill Clyburn, D-Aiken, said there is a bill, co-sponsored by Kimpson and Lexington Democrat Sen. Nikki Setzler, still sitting in the Senate; that bill has yet to make it out of Senate subcommittee discussions. Another bill headed by Gilliard has not received any hearing in the House committee yet.
Clyburn said he saw the situation in North Charleston as a "tragedy," and called equipping law enforcement with body cameras a "win-win" for citizens and public safety officers.
S.C. Sen. Tom Young, R-Aiken, who serves on the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee, called the North Charleston incident an "unacceptable scenario," but said he doesn't foresee the Senate bill moving forward.
"We're in the first year of a two-year session; I got the impression from Marlon (Kimpson) at the last hearing that he wanted to get testimony," Young said. "It almost sounded like they wanted to work on it over the summer." He added, however, that the process may move more quickly now as a result of the North Charleston incident and that the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee has another meeting set for next Wednesday.
Funding the cameras
Clyburn said although he is in favor of body cameras and states helping in that movement, if funding is not available on a state level, local governments should be given financial flexibility to do so by the state.
Young said he would not be for mandating Kimpson's bill mainly because of the costs associated for law enforcement agencies, and also the General Assembly would likely not pass a bill that's required.
"If they don't have a way to pay for it, if we just tell them they have to do it, they have to find a way to pay for it," Young said. "A lot of them can't afford it without raising taxes on their citizens."
Aiken Republican Rep. Bill Taylor agreed.
"If we tell them (law enforcement) what to buy, then we would have to fund it," Taylor said. "If they see a need for that based on their expertise, then they should pursue getting their equipment. We don't tell them what uniforms to buy, what cars to buy, etc. They know the best procedures that apply to their departments and communities. For me, it's always about home rules."
Killian brought up local government budget constraints, citing the most recent House vote in March that altered the funding formula for the local government fund.
If adopted by the Senate, Charleston Republican Rep. Jim Merrill's proposed bill, H. 3374, would replace the initial funding formula, and local governments would receive an amount equal to the percentage increase in the state's general budget, capped at 5 percent. That funding would be based on budget projections, rather than the previous year's budget.
The local government fund was conceived in 1991, requiring state lawmakers to provide 4.5 percent of the completed fiscal year's general fund revenue to be allocated into the fund for cities and counties.
Over the past budget year, the County has lost about $2 million in revenue, Killian said. That revenue could have been put to funding body cameras, he said.
But Taylor and Setzler said the fund and body cameras are two separate issues.
"We have increased the funding to the local government fund in this year's budget," Taylor said. "Requests go into the billions of dollars for more money from local governments, school districts and other agencies. There simply isn't enough to go around; but, over time, I think they'll be happy with our efforts."
The Aiken Standard reached out to the rest of the Aiken County Legislative Delegation who did not comment by press time. Graniteville Republican Rep. Chris Corley refused to comment on the issue.
• The Associated Press and The Post and Courier contributed to this story, as well as Aiken Standard reporter Derrek Asberry and Opinions Page Editor Michael Ulmer.
Maayan Schechter is the local government reporter with Aiken Standard. Follow her on Twitter @MaayanSchechter.