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Body cameras benefit Mercer County Deputies

Body cameras are making the job a little bit easier for Mercer County Deputies.

ALEDO, Illinois - It's part of the uniform, Mercer County Deputies are required to wear body cameras.

The department has had the cameras for 11 months.

"I like it because I think it helps honest people stay honest," said Sgt. Jason Monson.

Sgt. Jason Monson turns the camera on every time he steps out of the patrol car to make sure it's recording anytime he's approaching someone.

"On the right hand side there's a little switch when you want to turn it on you just slide that switch down, the camera comes on by itself," said Monson.

Already the Sheriff has been able to use the technology to back up an officers account of an incident.

"It gives me a video form that I can go back and review that and in every single case of a complaint, I find that my deputies are extremely professional," said Mercer County Sheriff David Staley.

Sheriff Staley said he's been very happy with the way the cameras have worked, the challenge comes when the video is back at the station because it's department policy to save all video for at least 6 months, depending on the case sometimes even longer.

"We bought a specific computer system and a hard drive to back all these videos up we filled that in about 9 months," said Staley.

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