Lemoore City Council okays 25 new body cameras for Lemoore Police Department

According to Smith, the purpose of the video cameras is to collect visual and audible evidence to assist in the prosecution of criminal cases, as well as to promote officer safety and provide corroboration of the officer’s testimony.

“It’s another set of eyes on the scene,” stated Smith in his written memo to councilmembers. “We have viewed them as an additional tool to document police activities and to deter inappropriate behavior.”

He added that at the end of every shift, video footage is downloaded to a stand-alone desktop computer for storage. In order to search for video footage, officers must filter through the downloaded files which are only identified by date, and not by officers. This results in many man hours. Files also tend to take up a lot of hard-drive space on the computer.

Smith is recommending the city purchase Taser Axon body-worn cameras which are manufactured by Taser International and is a reputable company.

The cameras come with a subsidiary company called Evidence.com, which is a data storage company designed to manage and store the downloaded data from the new cameras. This will allow Lemoore officers to download data from the body worm cameras much easier and efficiently. It also allows for greater organization.

It will also allow the department to share, via the Cloud, video evidence with other agencies, including the Kings County District Attorney’s Office.

Smith is seeking 25 new cameras, licenses to Evidence.com, storage costs and associated equipment for a three-year contract at $29,285.05. Taser is also offering a trade in special for December where it will provide one Taser Axon camera for every camera traded on a one for one basis. This will result in a trade of the existing VIEVU cameras.

Smith said the funds will come from $80,200 in Realignment funds from the state this year and will not impact the general budget.