Resident urges statewide mandate for body-worn cameras on traffic stops after personal wrongful-arrest claim
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Summary
A Bay County resident who said she was wrongfully arrested urged legislators to require officers to wear body cameras during traffic stops and public interactions, saying footage was essential when the state attorney found no probable cause in her case.
Michelle Carter, a Bay County resident, described a personal encounter with the Bay County Sheriff's Office and said body-worn camera footage proved she had been wrongfully held in 2020. She said the state attorney later found no probable cause for the arrest and credited available video with changing the outcome.
Carter urged a statewide mandate that officers record traffic stops and other public interactions. She said school-resource officers in her experience lacked body cameras at times and that public-records responses indicated the county's policy did not yet require certain categories of officers to carry cameras.
Ending: Carter asked the delegation to consider statutory or policy changes to require recording in traffic stops and public interactions; legislators invited her to follow up with their offices for more detail.