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Finance Director Lund stated that the discussion can shift to the capital section since there are <br />additional requests. She moved the discussion to the capital section and noted there is <br />approximately $186,000 that is property tax levy. She mentioned that squad video cameras were <br />about a year and a half to two years out before the City would even be able to get them, so this <br />could weigh into having the funding in place by that time. She asked Police Chief Katers for <br />clarification that these squad cameras were at least a year and a half out. <br /> <br />Acting Mayor Riley added that Police Chief Katers had talked to the Council about the squad <br />cameras and he knew there was a question about making sure that these cameras worked with the <br />body cameras and now it seems like there would be a lag since these cameras would not be received <br />for a while, he asked if that helped by giving the new cameras to the new cars immediately versus <br />having to switch over the old ones to the new ones. <br /> <br />Police Chief Katers stated that the police department has had cameras in the squad cars since 2008 <br />and there are 5 cameras with audio in the squad cars. These are the Panasonic arbitrator system <br />and is a separate system than the body cameras which are Axon, which are two independent <br />systems. He mentioned there is a new system that goes into the squad cars that integrates with the <br />Axon system and a lot of agencies use this system, so replacing the existing squad car cameras <br />with the Axon system, the body cameras syncs up with the squad car camera and there are a lot of <br />automatic features that takes the manual manipulation out of the hands of the officers. He added <br />that the major benefit is there would be one system for data retrieval rather than two separate <br />systems which are maintained by two separate companies with two separate maintenance <br />contracts. Ultimately, he expressed that this is where he would like to move towards for the future; <br />however, to answer Finance Director Lund’s question, the equipment is not readily available. <br /> <br />Acting Mayor Riley asked if the cost was similar to what has always been paid for these types of <br />equipment. <br /> <br />Police Chief Katers stated that each camera system costs approximately $6,000 per squad car and <br />added that he just paid approximately $6,000 for a police radio. He said that this equipment is very <br />expensive but it is relied upon 24/7 and has to be reliable. He explained that the police department <br />can get by running the two separate systems, but ideally would like to get to one system, but in the <br />interim they can keep using the two it will just require more staff time. <br /> <br />Acting Mayor Riley stated that since the squad cars are replaced every three years it would be a <br />fairly short turn over and the problem would fix itself rather quickly if the new system is put in the <br />new cars. <br /> <br />Police Chief Katers expressed the IT needs for the laptops so the new cars will be getting <br />everything new at once when the cars are rotated in. <br /> <br />Councilmember Musgrove asked if Police Chief Katers could discuss what it would look like only <br />replacing the squad cars every three years and having two scenarios in which the department would <br />be merging tape from the two video cameras versus getting the cameras replaced all at one time. <br /> <br />City Council Work Session / August 23, 2022 <br />Page 8 of 16 <br /> <br />