Crystal Lake City Council approves 5-year agreement to buy body, new squad video systems

The Crystal Lake City Council approved a five-year agreement worth about $650,000 with Axon Enterprise Inc. to buy body-worn cameras and new vehicle video systems for its police department at a Tuesday evening meeting.

The Crystal Lake Police Department has been considering the implementation of body-worn cameras for several years and began physically testing camera systems in the latter half of 2020, according to a supplement attached to Tuesday’s meeting agenda.

More departments across the state will be making similar moves toward getting body cameras as Illinois earlier this year passed a law mandating that all Illinois police departments get them by 2025, some sooner depending on their communities’ size.

Crystal Lake Police Chief James Black told the Northwest Herald that the department’s goal is to implement the cameras in the fall of this year.

“We look at it as a risk management tool as well as a continuation of being transparent with the public,” Black said.

Crystal Lake’s police force has given its patrol fleet dash cameras for more than 20 years, city staff said in the memo. Their current squad video systems are nearing their end of service life and will need to be replaced soon.

“Squad video has proved extremely useful not only in assisting in the prosecution of criminal cases, but also as a means to conduct thorough inquiries into complaints lodged against our officers, improve upon training needs and enhance officer safety,” city staff wrote in the agenda supplement. “Quality video evidence provides the Police Department with the ability to fine-tune tactics used by officers by improving procedures and responses to critical and routine events that may have gone unnoticed but for the existence of squad video that captures officers’ actions.”

Having body worn cameras can keep officers and the public accountable, Black said, as video footage shows both parties’ actions.

Video footage from body cameras can also be used for training, Black said. The police department reviews all use of force incidents, for instance, but body cameras will allow them to see if an officer is using a tactic that may be allowable under law but may be a safety issue.

Officers field-tested body-worn cameras provided by three vendors: Axon Enterprise Inc., Watchguard and Panasonic, ultimately going with Axon. Each product was evaluated for video quality, audio quality, comfort, upload speed and backend navigation, with Axon outperforming the other two in every category, according to the agenda supplement.

The total cost of outfitting officers with 67 body-worn cameras from Axon is $460,985, which is just less than the $468,800 initially allocated for them in the fiscal 2021-22 budget. To buy and install 24 police vehicle video systems, it will cost $191,360.

Axon Enterprise’s agreement with the city was approved unanimously by the council as part of its consent agenda.

There are some grant and assisted funding opportunities the police department plans to use to help pay for the cameras.

Crystal Lake CrimeStoppers offered the department about $15,000 for the purchase of body-worn cameras, and the department applied for a grant from the Intergovernmental Risk Management Agency, which will reimburse the city up to $10,000 for the purchase of body-worn cameras.

Additionally, the Crystal Lake Police Department also will see if any grant money becomes available through the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board as a result of the statewide body camera mandate, staff said.