.jpg)
At the Lincolnton City Council meeting this past Thursday, Chief Green, the Lincolnton Chief of Police, spoke advocating for the council’s approval of new body and dash cams (to be placed on the dashboard of the patrol cars) for the Lincolnton Police Department. The cameras, which will be purchased in two separate contracts, are sourced from Axon Enterprise Inc. Both contracts last sixty months and will cost the city a total of $374,782.57. The respective cost is $190,210.25 for the body cameras and $184,572.32 for the dash cameras. However, by purchasing both the body cameras and dash cameras Axon offered a discounted rate to the city thereby saving the city $198,815.27.
Taking on this contract the city would still remain within budget.
This is the second contract the LPD has partnered with Axon for body cameras; however, the dash cameras are a new edition for the department according to Chief Green. He said about the body cameras, “I think in the beginning officers were hesitant about it, but now they see that it protects them as much as it does protect the public.” Regarding the new dash camera, he clarified that it has two parts, one that faces the front of the vehicle as well as one that faces the rear passenger area “So if we have someone that we arrest, that will be filmed during the whole time so it will protect them and it will protect our officers as well.” Additionally, the dash cams give the LPD the ability to track the vehicles they are in which Chief Green believes will positively impact dispatch times.
The council unanimously approved the motion to move forward with both contracts. The estimated start date for the body cam contract is August 1st, and the estimated start date for the dash cam contract is a month later on September 1st.
.jpg)
