COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Franklin County Board of Commissioners have held public forums to get community response on the implementation of body cameras, most recently earlier this week.

Tamala Payne was in attendance. 

What You Need To Know

  • Governor Mike DeWine announced 109 law enforcement agencies would receive money for body camera program

  • The overall grant was $4.7 million 

  • The Franklin County Sheriff's Department received nearly $76k of that grant money

Payne is the mother of Casey Goodson Jr., who was shot and killed by Jason Meade, a now retired Franklin County Sheriff's office SWAT deputy.

The Sheriff's office began wearing body cameras earlier this summer, but almost two years after her son's death Payne said that it's not enough.

“You think that because Casey was murdered you guys implementing these body cameras means something to us?” said Payne. "It doesn’t. You guys should have had body cameras and then you guys should have had policy changes in place. Casey has been gone for two years and there hasn’t been not one policy change.” 

Of the 900 law enforcement agencies throughout the state less than half use body cameras. This is largely due to the state not requiring law enforcement to use them.

In January, Governor Mike DeWine announced 109 law enforcement agencies would receive money for body camera programs, including almost $75,000 to the Franklin County Sheriff's Dept.

Lawmakers like State Representative Latyna Humphrey say it's been hard to get police reform legislation through.

“We introduce these bills to create safer communities for our constituents, but again as I mentioned earlier I don't always believe that some of our colleagues believe in the same things we do,” said Humphrey. “So they’ve been introduced but are awaiting hearings, but as you know the general assembly ends, December 31st.”

House Democrats have called for hearings on several bills that address police reform, including Andre's Law, which would require the use of body and dashboard cameras. 

Andre's law currently takes precedence in Columbus and has sparked questions on protocol in the Donovan Lewis case, which is still under investigation by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Inspector General.