By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – Just days after our story about the Port Angeles Police Department’s push to get their officer body worn camera program going by sometime this winter, and Sequim’s announcement that their program is already up and running, Clallam County Sheriff Brian King announced that he expects his deputies to go live with their own program by November 1.
Chief Criminal Deputy Amy Bundy, who is leading the process of training each of the patrol deputies on department policy and how to use the devices, told KONP that the entire program hinged on a recent technology breakthrough, at least for the County, to make it possible.
“Some of the challenges in deploying a program like this are IT related, regarding connectivity on the west end. So, what we’ve done is, we have, and this took some time, but I can tell you, I’m proud to say that we have installed a commercial satellite for Starlink. And I was out there just the Saturday. I went out on my own time to verify everything was up and running, and it is working well.”
At $250,000 for a 5 year contract, the program isn’t cheap. But the Sheriff’s staff worked with Clallam County Commissioners to secure funding to pay for the body cams and a full-time position in Support Services that is necessary to handle the anticipated public records requests.
After testing a range of products, the Sheriff’s Office contracted with Axon Enterprise, which supplies the body camera and the software to upload the digital evidence into a cloud-based case management system. Bundy says there’s another aspect to the program that citizens themselves will be able to use.
“And in addition, one of the coolest thing is what’s called the Community Request Link. For example, if you, let’s say, got your window on your car broken, but nothing stolen. Attempted Vehicle Prowl. And you don’t really need us to come out to talk to you about it, you can take a picture, because you need it for your insurance, and you need a case number for your insurance report. I can send a link from this app to the Community member to upload the pictures themselves.”
In addition, using the text message or email link sent by a Deputy, citizens will be able to provide valuable digital evidence to assist in their investigations.
More information regarding the camera and technology can be found at: axon.com/products/axon-body-3
(CCSO photo: Deputy wearing Axon body cam)