“They’ve been a welcome addition,” said Gloucester Sheriff Darrell Warren regarding the body cameras his deputies began wearing in mid-August.

“The very first week we were using them, we got a call at 6:45 a.m. on a Sunday morning about a guy agitated and blocking traffic on a back road. He was obviously under the influence of something. We ended up having to Taser him, and in situations when you use force it’s good to have that camera to back you up,” said Warren. 

Warren pulled up the footage from the incident and it is, as he said, like watching TV. The agitated man, who is screaming and slamming the hood of a stopped vehicle, turns and curses at the first officer to arrive and ignores his orders. The officer attempts to take the man into custody but the man manages to turn and grabs the officer’s neck.

As the two tussle, another officer arrives and warns the man before deploying his Taser. The man is brought to the ground, sustainin...