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JAMESTOWN – Jamestown Police will be seeing an upgrade to its fleet of body cameras.
The Jamestown City Council approved a resolution Monday allowing the police department to purchase new body cameras. Councilman Brent Sheldon briefly commented prior to the vote.
Sheldon says that the purchase of the cameras addresses multiple areas for JPD.
“The current body cameras that the police department are using are failing,” Sheldon said. “They can’t get the parts. They can’t fix them. This also goes hand-in-hand with our police reform to continue the transparency of the Jamestown Police Department.”
Mark Dean, Director of Information Technology and Communications, addressed the council during its Work Session earlier this month. Dean says that he is requesting the City purchase 63 body cameras for all officers and detectives.
Dean explains that the body cameras that the police currently use are approximately three years old and are often failing. As a result, Dean says officers are often sharing cameras and evidence and case trials are being affected.
Dean and the Mayor requested the City pay $70,120.16 to Axon annually for five years. This includes replacement and shipping for cameras that stop functioning. Two of the cameras will be kept as spares if a camera needs to be replaced or fixed.
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