Wichita approves purchase of $2.2 million police body camera system

Wichita police are moving forward with plans to buy a $2.2 million body camera system to use for the next five years.

But several residents told the Wichita City Council on Tuesday they had concerns about the purchase because the department does not yet have a policy in place on when and how the cameras would be used and the city did not go through its regular bid process for the cameras.

Council members promised last year that cameras would be in place by the end of 2015. The intent is for all patrol officers – more than 400 – to have the cameras by the end of the year. Supervising officers will not.

“We said we don’t want a Ferguson here. And I don’t want a Ferguson here,” said council member Lavonta Williams, referring to Ferguson, Mo., where a white officer fatally shot a young black man, sparking rioting. “I want everybody to go home safe. I want all lives to matter. And so with that being said, I am very supportive of us moving on to meet those deadlines.”

Walt Chappell, who sits on the Racial Profiling Advisory Board, told the council the board had been told for months that it would get to weigh in on the new body camera policy, but it had not yet seen it.

Capt. Brian White said the department is working on the policy and hopes to release a draft soon. The policy could cover such issues as who could view videos and how long the information would be stored.

Council members and City Manager Robert Layton said they would not allow the cameras to be used before a policy was discussed in the community and was in place.

“I haven’t seen the policy. It’s not a big secret; it’s still being worked on,” said council member Janet Miller. “If we whipped out a policy in 30 to 45 days, we’d be up here looking like clowns. ... We’d like to wait until the whole thing is vetted and put together and put it out for public comment.”

Chappell also voiced concerns over the city’s bid process for the cameras.

The contract with Taser, which the council approved unanimously, includes licensing fees and data storage in the first year for $712,000 and licensing and data storage fees of $360,000 for subsequent years, according to city documents. Council member Bryan Frye was not present.

The city’s current policy requires bids for purchases of more than $50,000. One way the policy defines bidding is looking at what other governments have bid through a public process in what’s called an “intergovernmental cooperative contract.”

The police department did a competitive open bid for body cameras in 2011. But for this latest round, the city looked at what the state of Arizona received when it did bids for Taser body cameras last year.

“There’s a state contract where they bid all the Taser equipment, so other agencies within that state can see what a fair price is for any piece of equipment that Taser offers,” White said. “It’s not for all body-worn camera equipment, it’s for Taser product equipment. We’re getting a better deal. Our pricing is better than that.”

“Because of events around the country, there’s an extreme amount of demand on this product,” and it wouldn’t be wise to put off the purchase, said council member James Clendenin.

The police department is seeking $250,000 in federal grants and plans to also use towing and narcotics seizure funds to help offset costs, White said. The department is still determining the total cost for implementing the cameras, including paying for personnel to respond to Kansas Open Records Requests, he said. They will have to hire possibly four people to handle the records, White said.

Layton said that retiring the department’s police helicopter could also free up some funds.

The department now uses 60 body cameras and has a waiting list of officers who want to wear them, White said. The city’s purchase would include software to store and access video through Evidence.com.

Through the viewing monitor, officers could watch video and tag specific parts of it, but they could not edit or delete it, White said. The only way an officer could delete video would be by destroying the camera.

This story was originally published July 7, 2015 at 11:15 AM with the headline "Wichita approves purchase of $2.2 million police body camera system."