Wichita police are getting 539 new body cameras for officers and field sergeants

Wichita police are getting upgraded body cameras for officers and new cameras for supervisors about two months after a captain said a police shooting showed the need for new technology.

The department was already planning to outfit officers and field sergeants with the new Axon cameras before a motorcycle officer had difficulty turning on his body camera during a police chase that led to him shooting at the other driver.

Officers are being trained on how to use the 479 upgraded cameras for field personnel, Officer Charley Davidson said. An additional 60 new cameras will be purchased for field sergeants and are expected to be in use early this year.

The new cameras for supervisors are being purchased with a $100,000 grant from the Department of Justice, and the upgrades are part of an existing contract.

“The WPD continually evaluates the use of technology and upgraded technology to ensure officers have the proper equipment to provide the best safety services in Wichita,” Davidson said.

In November, a Wichita police motorcycle officer shot at a man who drove at him. The man was later arrested with the help of a police dog, SWAT team and Kansas Highway Patrol airplane.

Capt. Brent Allred said after the shooting that the officer made multiple attempts to turn on his body camera during the incident, but it was unclear whether the officer was successful. The shooting happened during a relatively cold evening and the officer was wearing a heavy jacket.

“The pack that you push to start the camera, he was trying to push that through his jacket,” Allred said. “It never actually engaged. As the vehicle went by him, he reached in his jacket pocket and was trying to pull out his camera to try to turn it on to capture some of that — because it will go back 30 seconds — but unfortunately it just didn’t work.

“As you can imagine, trying to activate your camera while driving a motorcycle can be dangerous and difficult at times,” Allred said as he made a motion of holding onto handlebars and tapping his chest. “We learned something during this incident, that we need some different technology I think for the motorcycle officers.”

The new Flex 2 body cameras from Axon have the capability to automatically activate when the lights and sirens are turned on.

At a police review board meeting two days after the shooting, Capt. Chet Pinkston said the problem was likely an equipment issue due to an imperfect process for turning on the cameras. He said the officer has to touch the camera squarely and may not be able to immediately check the light to ensure it is on.

“If I don’t touch it squarely and if I don’t have the time or ability to check and make sure that the light is on, that’s where we typically have issues with body cameras not working. Some of them unfortunately malfunction. Axon is in the process of rolling out the newest equipment.”

Capt. Wendell Nicholson, Patrol East bureau commander, told the review board in October the planned upgrade is similar to a cellphone upgrade.

“Just like everybody has an iPhone, with technology things get obsolete after a few years. ... We signed a five-year contract, and that contract came with two upgrades,” Nicholson said.

When Wichita police launched the use of body cameras in 2015, the five-year plan was expected to cost $2.2 million. A $250,000 federal grant helped pay for the cameras.

Axon said in a 2016 news release that the Flex 2 has a better field of view than the Flex 1, going from 75 degrees to 120 degrees to capture more. Better video resolution will help with low light performance, and a two-channel microphone optimizes audio recording of voices and environmental noise.

The new cameras include automatic activation with Taser weapons, which are made by the parent company of Axon. Automatic activation can also be set up through systems in a patrol car and from Signal triggers.

The nine-page policy governing the department’s use of body-worn cameras is publicly available at www.wichita.gov/WPD/Pages/Policy.aspx, Policy 716.