Description
A controversial traffic stop involving a well-known pastor has led to sweeping changes for the Bartow Police Department.
The Bartow City Commission voted this week to spend $2.1 million on new body and dash cameras, tasers and training through the company Axon. Officials say the cameras should be deployed by the start of the new year.
The decision comes less than two months after Bartow police pulled over Pastor Don’Tavius Sanders of St. James AME Church for a broken tag light.
His car was searched by a K-9, but no drugs were found, and Sanders was neither cited nor arrested. The incident drew outrage from community leaders who called it humiliating and racially biased.
“Transparency is the order of the day,” Sanders said after commissioners approved the purchase. “I hate the fact that it started that way and began that way. Oftentimes, it takes difficult things to move for positive action.”
MORE: https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/local/polkcounty/bartow-police-body-cameras-pastor-traffic-stop/67-51a3af9f-f682-4319-b9a0-0ff676494d5e