While some law enforcement agencies are rushing to outfit their patrol officers with body cameras in the wake of a number of high-profile cases of alleged police brutality across the U.S., expense and privacy concerns will keep them largely out of Gloucester and Mathews for now.

Gloucester Sheriff Darrell Warren said a vendor visited his agency to demonstrate a body camera system, which had its own computer server. “The cost was astronomical,” he said, putting it out of reach for the near future in these days of tight county budgets.  

With 28 patrol deputies, Warren said there are questions about how best and how long to store the accumulated information from the body-worn video cameras. He said it would be too much for the county’s IT system.

There is also the question of privacy, especially when officers interact with residents who are inside their own homes. “Is everything recorded subject to FOIA requests?” Warren said is one question that rem...