Police Department Moving Forward With Body Camera Program

By Adam Swift

Police body cameras will benefit the community and the department, according to Police Chief Terence Delehanty.

The town and the police department are looking to move forward with a five-year lease for police body cameras and associated software with Arizona-based Axon.

Tuesday night, the Town Council met with a representative from Axon and Delehanty about the services provided by the company.

The police department has an $84,000 grant that would pay for the cameras and first year of the lease, according to Delehanty. Future years of the lease would be budgeted as a capital item, he said.

While not a state or federal requirement at this time, Delehanty said moving forward with police-worn body cameras makes sense, as it will increase transparency, and will likely be a requirement in the near future under police reform.

“It is certainly in the best practices of policing nowadays for transparency and accountability that people wanted to see after the George Floyd death,” said the chief. “That’s what brought us here, and that was at the crux of police reform, although that happened many miles away from us, it still affected us. Talking to the town manager when he came in, there was an opportunity for a grant, and we said if we can get the grant, we will go full steam ahead with this process.”

A body camera policy is currently being negotiated with the police unions, Delehanty added.

“We have looked at the final recommendations that the body-worn camera commission that was set up through police reform has just reported back on August 2 of this year,” said Delehanty. “The Senate has yet to take any action on those recommendations, but we are looking at those recommendations and trying to include as many of them as possible in our policy, because we know those will become law and will be required in our policy.”

As for the Axon products themselves, the chief said there are a number of reasons to recommend the company, including product integration, the ability to quickly share video with other entities, such as the district attorney’s office, and the ability to easily redact items from videos.

Videos automatically upload to a cloud platform when they are placed in a docking station, and those docking stations also ensure the software for the cameras are updated. Delehanty said the cloud platform meets FBI cybersecurity standards.

The cameras are also automatically connected through a signal to officer tasers and firearms, so officers do not have to take time to turn the cameras on if they are in a situation where every second counts.

“I don’t want officers thinking I have to turn this on before I draw my weapon,” said Delehanty. “These seconds could cause someone their life. To have everything as automatic as possible removes human error.”