Grants and a potential shuffle of the Bartow city budget could hold the key to equipping the city’s police officers with body worn cameras, an issue that into the spotlight again during a protest over a traffic stop involving a prominent local pastor.
The extended traffic stop and K-9 search of Pastor Don’tavius Sanders, 31, of St. James AME Church in Bartow led to a press conference on July 3 involving African Methodist Episcopal pastors from across the state. They decried his humiliating treatment by police.
Presiding Bishop Marvin C. Zanders II for the 11th Episcopal District AME and multiple pastors with Florida’s 400 African Methodist Episcopal churches assembled at Fort Blount Park to call for body worn cameras for police officers, an apology from the police and a committee to investigate the incident…