Body cameras are coming to the River Forest Police Department after action taken by the village board Feb. 12.
The five trustees present voted unanimously to award a five-year contract to Arizona-based Axon Enterprises Inc. for $270,458.99 for 33 body-worn camera systems. Trustee Lisa Gillis did not attend.
Body cameras are small video and audio recording devices typically attached to an officer’s uniform.
The total includes $160,000 for the purchase and $27,614 for each of the subsequent years. Deputy Chief James Greenwood said a portion of the $160,000 will be covered by a $60,000 Small, Rural and Tribal Body-Word Camera grant from the federal government, and department officials are seeking additional grant funding for the annual expenses.
In a related action, trustees voted unanimously to award a five-year contract to Axon Enterprises for $100,406 to upgrade the dashboard camera systems in eight front-line patrol vehicles. The total includes $80,920 for the purchase and $4,871 for each of the subsequent years.
Chief Jim O’Shea explained that the dash camera system will work in conjunction with the body camera system, which provides the benefit to using Axon for both. He said he was recommending Axon after “extensive research.” In a memo to Matt Walsh, village administrator, O’Shea explained that the two Axon systems “best fit the needs of the department” and cited Axon’s “proven record” as a high quality and reliable product in making his recommendation. Axon will provide a “refresh” of the systems after 30 months and five years, which Greenwood explained is an additional benefit.
Proposals for the body camera system also were received from Motorola and Getac, which sell similar systems with slightly different capabilities and configurations, O’Shea said.
“The department members have been very interested in implementing the new body worn camera program,” he said. “We appreciate the support of the village board, especially the village president Cathy Adduci, for this approval of this new program.”
Illinois is now one of seven states to require police officers to wear body cameras. Under the SAFE-T Act, officers are required to keep their cameras on while on duty or engaged in “any law enforcement-related encounter or activity.”
Although larger municipalities were required to implement the body cameras sooner, municipalities with a population of fewer than 50,000 such as River Forest had until Jan. 1 to meet the requirement.
In response to questioning by trustees, O’Shea said an exact date when officers will start wearing body cameras will depend on the delivery and installation schedules but said he expects the department to meet the requirement “by a few months” before the deadline; many of the procedures for using the body cameras will be mandated by the SAFE-T Act and the village’s insurance provider; and both systems will be checked at the beginning of each shift.
He said the dash cameras will replace a system that has been in use since 1998 and “are past their useful life.” The cost includes all hardware, software and data storage to implement the system.
