City Council Meeting Date: April 6, 2021
To: Mayor and City Council
City Administrator
From: Mark Elliott, Police Chief
Title
Consider a Motion to Authorize the Purchase of Body and Squad Cameras and Implementation.
Body
Action Requested:
Staff recommends a motion to approve the purchase of a body worn camera and squad camera system from Axon Enterprise Inc.
Summary Report:
The Northfield Police Department Body Worn Camera (BWC) program has been discussed for several years and was placed in the 2021 budget after several discussions during the process. Additional information was presented and discussed during the Police Policy Task Force, and several City Council meetings have had this program as a discussion item this winter. Included in the City Council meeting on March 2, 2021 was the acceptance of public comment. The comments submitted for this item were overwhelmingly supportive of the program.
The next step in the body worn camera program is to finalize a vendor and accept a contract for providing equipment and data storage. There are numerous vendors and numerous plans from several of the vendors. The police department has researched the options available and have decided on a vendor that meets the needs of the police department and the IT department, both of which have a significant stake in the program. In deciding on a vendor, the department compared program and pricing structures, product reliability and support, operational mechanics, interoperability between squad and body worn equipment, CJIS compliant storage options, and staff support capacity.
While cost is a major factor in making purchases, a purchase of a BWC system also must carefully consider reliability, the efficiency of uploading and downloading videos, durability of equipment and mounts, security of video storage, and product support. As was previously mentioned, the police department worked closely with the IT department on examining equipment and staff support for da...
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