City of Lakeland to spend over $9 million taxpayers money on body cameras and other technologies

Lakeland officials unanimously approved the purchase of a $9.3-million body camera package for the city’s police department.

The 10-year contract with Axon Enterprises Inc of Scottsdale, Arizona will include more equipment than the city originally sought, while costing less money than anticipated.

One little issue: The cameras may not hit Lakeland streets until 2023. 

City staff has negotiated a deal that for a flat rate of $938,000 per year, the city will get 250 body cameras – nearly enough to outfit all of Lakeland’s 254 full-time sworn officers, including its 24 staff and administrators. 

Assistant Chief Hans Lehman told commissioners the delay is primarily caused by Lakeland Police Department being in the middle of transitioning to a Computer Aided Dispatch system, or CAD/RMS – software designed to improve response to emergency 911 calls.

Meanwhile, the police department will work on putting together its body camera use policy, according to Lehman, which will govern how officers utilize the equipment – including when sound can be muted or the cameras turned off.

The contract also provides the city’s police with 250 new Tasers to replace its seven-year old units that use 10-year-old technology and are no longer covered under the manufacturer’s warrantee. 

In addition, there will be 165 new in-car video systems to replace the department’s current dashboard cameras, up from the original request of 140. The department’s current systems use an aging technology that required videos to be uploaded and burned to a CD to be presented as evidence. The number of in-car units may increase, according to Lehman, and will be finalized closer to implementation. 

Axon will provide 10 virtual reality training sets to Lakeland Police Department as part of the contract.