School resource officers (SROs) in Hernando County will begin wearing body cameras when students return from spring break on March 24, the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office announced Monday.

Sheriff Al Nienhuis said the rollout is part of a broader effort to equip all sheriff’s deputies with body cameras following funding approval received several months ago. The same department policies governing use by patrol deputies will apply to SROs.

The cameras will remain in “ready mode” throughout the school day but will not continuously record. Deputies are directed to activate recording when an interaction is, or is likely to become, official law enforcement business — such as a parent reporting a crime or a confrontation — but routine moments like a student offering a high five would not typically be captured.

Some parents have raised concerns about recordings of their children being subject to public records laws. Nienhuis acknowledged the concern but framed the tradeoff as a matter of transparency, noting that most interactions in schools are already captured by existing on-campus and school bus cameras regardless of SRO body cameras.

Pasco County and Manatee County school resource officers also currently wear body cameras, while most other districts in the area do not. Those districts do have surveillance cameras at various campus locations and on buses.

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