DATE: May 17, 2022
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Chief of Police
SUBJECT: Adopt a Resolution Authorizing the City Manager to Execute a Five-Year Agreement with Axon Enterprises Inc. to Purchase Axon Fleet 3 In-Car Dash Cameras for Fifty-Three Patrol Vehicles and Auto-Tagging Subscription(s) for Officers in an Amount Not to Exceed $785,518
RECOMMENDATION
That Council adopts a resolution (Attachment II) authorizing the City Manager to execute a five-year agreement with Axon Enterprises, Inc. (Axon) for the purchase and management of Axon Fleet 3 In-Car Dash and Automated License Plate Reading (ALPR) Cameras for the HPD patrol fleet and an auto-tagging subscription.
SUMMARY
HPD currently utilizes Body Worn Cameras (BWCs), cameras affixed to the uniform of each officer, which are to be manually activated, to capture footage. As explained in this report, although BWCs have been extremely helpful to HPD in terms of mitigating liability and exhibiting transparency during police interactions, the devices have their limitations when it comes to capturing an entire operational situation. HPD has also, in the past, used cameras affixed externally to the roofs of two patrol vehicles to automatically capture license plate data. However, those cameras reached the end of their lifespan in 2021. Moreover, those cameras were only capable of capturing license plate data and were not capable of capturing footage of actual police interactions, as BWCs can do. Thus, they failed to make up for the limitations of what a BWC can capture.
In fiscal year 2019, $150,000 was budgeted into CIP to purchase dash cameras for HPD’s patrol vehicles. This was never used due to Covid. As such, in a continuing effort to broaden transparency, mitigate liability, advance investigative capabilities, and improve crime solvability, the HPD is recommending purchasing and installing Axon Fleet 3 Cameras in fifty-three Patrol Vehicles, since these are the most technologically updated cameras and since they have the dual capability to function simultaneously as an automated license plate reader.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment I Staff Report
Attachment II Resolution
Attachment III HPD Policy 429