City Council approves purchase of body cameras for South Lake Tahoe police officers

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The South Lake Tahoe Police Department (SLTPD) will soon be getting body cameras after a unanimous decision by City Council during their meeting on Tuesday.

They approved spending up to $470,000 on 42 body cameras, 28 in-car cameras, and cloud based storage for both.

SLTPD has been looking into the camera systems for some time, and after a January directive from City Council, started evaluating three different systems - Panasonic, who makes their current car cameras, Watch Guard, and Axon. Not only does the implementation of cameras include the physical device and procedures for them, it also includes large data storage to house hours of film.

“Body cameras keep our police officers and our residents and visitors safe,” said SLTPD Chief David Stevenson, “This is just another level of transparency we are adding to our police officers who work every day to keep our City safe.”

Axon was chosen as the supplier. Their cameras have an automatic turn on feature. This means even if an officer fails to turn their camera on, the camera will automatically start recording. Also, if an officer is in range of another officer with their camera on, the back-up officer's camera will turn on automatically as well.

“This kind of technology is exactly what our City needs for transparency and accountability,” said Lt. Shannon Laney. “The department has been working on deploying body cameras for years and we are looking forward to getting them on our officers and out on the streets.”

These cameras also come with other features like a real-time alerting system. When an officer’s camera is activated, the camera provides GPS location data to supervisors and dispatch. It also tells them what activated the camera.

“Research shows an officer wearing a body camera promotes more positive and compliant interactions between people and police,” said Laney, “It also helps with investigations, prosecutions, and increases officer safety.”

The resolution passed today will also include a full-time IT person to help with data storage and public record requests.

The initial outlay for year one is approximately $170,000 and is available from the City's General fund undesignated, unreserved fund balance. For years 2-5 the yearly amount of approximately $78k will be included in the Police Department operating budget. The additional IT staff member will cost approximately $110,775 and will be included in the general fund operating budget beginning 2020-2021. With the additional of this position, the Information Technology department
2020/2021 budget requests remains level with prior year due to reduction in other areas.