GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Green Bay’s city council is expected to decide next week whether to purchase body cameras for its police officers, but it will be doing so without a recommendation from its finance committee.
On Tuesday, the committee voted 2-2 on whether to support the current 5-year $2.7 million contract proposal with Axon, a vendor for law enforcement technology.
All of the city council members who spoke during the meeting voiced support for police officers wearing body cameras. However, there were questions and concerns about how the contract will be paid for.
“It’s like I’m going to go buy a car with my parents and I don’t know how much they are going to give in, so how is that deal kind of working?” said Alderperson Bill Galvin.
In this scenario, the parents are the Green Bay Packers. The team has said it’s going to financially contribute to the body camera program, but it hasn’t said how much.
“Their big interest and their big push on the social justice front is to help out with the body cameras,” said Captain Ben Allen with the Green Bay Police Department.
Read the Final Summary Quote for Green Bay from Axon.
Kelsey Donahue, a representative for Axon, told the committee the Packers contribution will be “sizeable” and will likely mean the city won’t have to pay any of the body camera costs in the first year of the contract.
The contract says the body camera costs total $1.8 million over 5 years. New tasers over that time total $534,708 and new dashboard cameras total $295,349.
Those prices include hardware, software, training, and unlimited storage.
“The police department has done a very good job, a lot of due diligence in comparing the different products out there,” said Galvin.
Besides not knowing the Packers contribution, there was also concern how the rest of the contract would be paid for. The current plan is to borrow the money.
“If we continue to bond for this indefinitely, we’re going to get ourselves caught in a cycle where we’re just growing debt on something that we can’t ever retire,” said Alderperson Brian Johnson.
“Then alders it’s on us to figure out how we’re going to add this to the yearly budget,” said Alderperson Barbara Dorff, the vice president of the city council. “We will figure that out. We will. We have to because it’s something we should have had years ago.”
Committee members were told they will know the Packers contribution when the city council takes up the contract proposal next Tuesday.
Packers Director of Public Affairs Aaron Popkey sent FOX 11 this statement:
“The Packers have appreciated the opportunity to work with the Green Bay Police Department and their goal to add body cameras as an important tool to their work. We’re pleased to be able to offer our financial support in that effort. As far as details, we will respect the remainder of the budgetary process as it is discussed tonight and then before the full council next week.”
The Packers have said they will also contribute to get body cameras for Brown County’s sheriff’s department and Ashwaubenon Public Safety.
Sheriff Todd Delain tells FOX 11 a request for proposals will most likely be issued for the county’s body camera program. He says a timeline has not been set. However, it is possible that could occur within the next several weeks.
Ashwaubenon’s village board approved moving forward with a body camera program last month. However, a vendor and cost still needs to be finalized.
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