City Council Approves New Body-Worn Police Camera Contract – Pasadena Now

The City Council voted Monday to enter into a new $4,506,601 contract to consolidate the police department’s body-worn camera and Taser contracts.

The contract provides new technology for the department that will create an additional layer of accountability through new body-worn cameras that automatically record when officers draw their weapons.

The current Taser agreement expires August 14 and the current body-worn camera agreement would end with a consolidated product agreement as a new contract.

AXON Signal Side Arm uses a smart sensor attached to the officer’s holster to alert the primary user’s body-worn camera and other nearby cameras within approximately 20 feet and begin recording as soon as the firearm is fired Will get removed.

Federal law requires critical incident footage to be released to the public within 45 days.

After the fatal officer-involved shooting of Anthony McClain, the department disciplined an officer for not turning on his camera.

If the officers on scene had the above technology and it worked as described, it would have activated both officers’ cameras on scene and provided the public and the Department with more footage of the incident.

The department will also purchase AXON Performance, software that provides an analytics dashboard of body-worn camera metrics related to activation, categorization and calls for service to identify rates, updated in near real-time.

Additionally, the department will purchase Axon Respond, which enables the use of GPS technology to locate an officer and allows supervisors to gain real-time situational awareness in tactical situations.

Tasers and cameras are also being upgraded.

The department currently deploys 306 of the 316 body-worn camera fleet.

The cameras will be assigned to both sworn and professional department employees who regularly come into contact with the public while working in the field.