A chilling video shows the moments leading up to the murder of a Flagstaff police officer, and all of it was captured on his body camera.
The public, community activists, politicians, now justice departments, are calling for police officers to wear body cameras to not only bring more transparency and trust back to the streets, but to capture evidence for convictions.
Scottsdale-based TASER, the developer of electrical weapons for law enforcement, announced that Arizona police departments are purchasing more Axon Flex and Axon Body cameras and EVIDENCE digital evidence management solution for officers.
READ: Next gen of body cameras turn on automatically
Since our last report, these Arizona police departments (P.D.) added smart weapons or the Axon and EVIDENCE platform.
- Tempe P.D. has ordered 340 Axon Flex camera with five years of Evidence.com
- Arizona State University P.D. is bringing 80 Axon Body cameras with five years of Evidence.com
- Buckeye P.D. added 69 Axon Body cameras with five years of Evidence.com
- Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office added 65 Axon Body cameras with five years of Evidence.com
- Maricopa County Protective Services added 50 X26P smart weapons
- University of Arizona P.D. added 58 X26P smart weapons
In Summer 2015, we reported that Taser was beta testing their next generation of Axon Flex. Today, the device requires the officer to physically turn on the camera to begin recording; the next generation will have wireless activation and automatically turn on when some part of the car/motorcycle, such as the siren or light bar, is activated. The device will also allow for multiple angels and automatically upload the video to the TASER EVIDENCE cloud platform once the equipment is docked.
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TASER reported that the San Diego Police Department’s use of body cameras helped reduce the number of complaints by 41%, there was a 47% decline in “personal body” force by officers and the use of pepper spray was reduced by 31%.
Other Arizona police departments that use TASER’s Axon and EVIDENCE platform include, Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, Scottsdale, Arizona Department of Corrections, Phoenix, Tucson, Mesa and Peoria.
Read more coverage of TASER here.
Graphics provided by TASER
The author has a tiny amount of stock in the company.