January 22, 2021 Newly-elected Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons asked the Escambia County Commission on Thursday for the funds to purchase body cameras for his deputies, following through on a campaign pledge. Simmons is requesting the commission allocate $912,727 for the purchase of 268 body cameras, with the money coming from what was CARES Act funds. “Every day that we do not have body cameras, there’s one thing that could take place that could come up and embarrass the Sheriff’s Office, could embarrass the county,” Simmons said. “I just think that this is that important — too important for us to delay it.”