BATTLE CREEK, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — Tuesday night, the Battle Creek Board of Commissioners approved a plan for the Battle Creek Police Department (BCPD) to be outfitted with new body cameras.
Under the agreement with Utility Associates, the police department will get 65 body-worn cameras along with 40 cameras for police cars. The new cameras will replace others which are considered out-of-date.
“These cameras will allow us to accurately capture contacts between members of our department and the public,” Deputy Police Chief Jim Grafton said in a previous statement.
BCPD will pay for the cameras over a five-year period out of their technology budget, which is a capital improvement fund. Part of that funding will also be paid by a grant from the Michigan Municipal Risk Management Authority.
In total, the deal is estimated to cost an estimated $737,300.
According to city documents, the deal with Utility was a difficult choice, as each brand had something different to offer. The department had already been testing different camera brands over the last three years.
“Through experience, it was understood that every company provided capabilities that often the other might not have,” BCPD Chief Jim Blocker said in a written statement. “We looked at pricing, many companies either focused on equipment, service, software, or a combination of them all. This made a side-by-side comparison difficult. Added to this was the reality that technology, access software (cloud or server) and speed was changing at a pace our test and evaluation system could hardly keep up with.”
Additionally, Blocker told WWMT on Tuesday that, in the case of a recent officer-involved shooting, had the technology already been available, the investigation would be less problematic.
The news of this new equipment for the BCPD comes as the Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Office has secured a deal for new body cameras and tasers for county Deputies. More information on that development can be found at this link.
(Jim Measel contributed to this report).
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