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Teacher contracts include pay raises By B.C. Manion bcmanion@lakerlutznews.com
Negotiators for Pasco County Schools and the United School Employees of Pasco have hammered out a deal that includes pay raises and increased instructional planning time. But it also calls for the end of smoking on all district properties and for the end of a district early retirement program. Teachers and school-related employees, on average, would receive a 3 percent increase under the proposal, union president
Kenny Blankenship said. “That’s one of the best in the state,” he said. The proposed contract also calls for increasing teachers’ Kenny Blankenship instructional planning time from the current 100 minutes a day, to 150.The increased planning time probably is the most significant item in the agreement, Blankenship said.
“Our teachers really need it with all of the changes that we’ve been going through,” Blankenship said. The proposed contract also calls for the end of smoking on district properties, effective July 1, 2016. It’s a provision Superintendent Kurt Browning says is important to the school district. “We want a healthier work force, and we felt very strongly that that was a way to at least move in that direction,” Browning said. See CONTRACT, page 7A
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We will never forget Commemorating Pearl Harbor day, skydiver Dave Stroble dropped in with a 1,500-square-foot American flag attached to him, which ended the Dec. 7 event at the Zephyrhills Museum of Military History. See more photos, page 7A.
Future is here: Body cameras coming to Pasco By Michael Hinman mhinman@lakerlutznews.com
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Many law enforcement agencies around the country continue to debate whether they should have patrol officers wear body cameras — but the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office isn’t waiting any longer. More than 400 deputies and investigators will be equipped with body cameras in February, a movie Sheriff Chris Nocco said would make neighborhoods safer for deputies and the people who live in them. “This is not the panacea,” Nocco said during a news conference last week. “This is not going to be the cure-all for all the issues of our world. But it’s a tool, just like any other tool that we use in law enforcement.” The sheriff’s office is in the process of ordering 415 sets of Taser Axon cameras, which can be mounted on glasses, hats, shirt fronts, collars, lapels and other locations on a deputy. They record up to four hours of video and audio, and have a battery that lasts 12 hours. Deputies will turn it on whenever they get out of their patrol car to interact with the public or investigate a crime, Nocco said. At the end of each shift, deputies connect their camera to a docking station to upload each video. Once it’s in the system, they cannot be manipulated, and deputies will not be able to edit them. It’s the kind of system that will not only provide transparency in how deputies interact with people inside Pasco County, but it also could streamline the court system significantly.
not have to rely on witness accounts alone, discouraging people from making false claims against the officer. It also could stop a deputy from crossing any lines, making some of the problems police are experiencing in New York City and Ferguson, Missouri, a lot less likely to happen. While the use of body cameras is something some observers have suggested after the officer-involved deaths in those cities, Nocco said Pasco’s plan has MICHAEL HINMAN/STAFF PHOTOS been in motion for quite The Taser Axon cameras, as Pasco County Sheriff’s deputy some time, with field testKristina Perez explains, can record up to four hours of video and ing beginning last October. audio, and has a battery life of 12 hours. More than 400 cameras “This started months are being ordered for deputies to start using in February. ago because citizens are constantly pulling their “The criminal justice system’s job is to phones out and taping deputies,” Nocco get to the truth,” said Craig Laporte, an attor- said.Those deputies were “looking on their ney with Proly Laporte & Mulligan in Port own to get body cameras, and they were Richey, who represents one of the deputy talking about buying them on their own. But unions.“If an individual has, in fact, commit- I said to wait, because we have to come up ted a crime, this provides evidence of that. with a policy.” This could reduce the number of jury trials That policy includes when deputies are … because the state attorney will immedi- expected to have the cameras on, and how ately have information they can use.” long videos will be stored before they’re Cameras also could significantly reduce deleted.The policy also makes it clear that the complaints filed against deputies, each the cameras can’t be used as “Big Brother,” one of which must be investigated. By hav- Nocco said, referring to the novel “1984,” ing an unedited video and audio record of See CAMERAS, page 7A the encounter, internal investigations would