The Signal Hill City Council unanimously approved a contract on Tuesday to supply the Signal Hill Police Department (SHPD) with new body cameras, vehicle cameras and accompanying software.
The City’s 5-year contract with the company Axon will cost around $453,000, and will include new body-worn cameras that will be deployed this summer, vehicle-mounted cameras that will be deployed by spring 2024 and the use of an unlimited cloud-based storage system.
Axon will replace the body-worn cameras after 2.5 years and 5 years.
Kelli Crigler, Operations Lieutenant for SHPD, said that SHPD started using body-worn cameras in 2015, before any other police department in Los Angeles County.
Crigler cited various issues the police department has had with its current camera vendor, Data 911, such as footage being mislabeled and improperly attached to other officers, as well as videos being difficult for officers to locate and store properly into evidence.
Crigler said video evidence is currently stored on SHPD’s personal server, and that police have to download necessary files onto CDs to send to prosecutors. Now, SHPD will be joining at least 32 other law enforcement agencies that use Axon to share evidence with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
The City has included funding for the contract in its proposed annual budget for fiscal year 2023-2024, as part of the money allocated for police operations.
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