Bloomington police officers will soon have body cameras as part of their work attire if the city council follows through with plans to buy them on Monday night.
The council voiced its support for buying 100 new body-worn cameras at a Committee of the Whole meeting last week.
Bloomington Assistant Police Chief Ken Bays told the council https://youtu.be/BXi9wjpAEw8?t=1619">via video recording the department has been studying and testing body camera systems for two years.
“The confidence in the equipment is growing and I believe the officers find it to be reliable,” Bays said. “They also expressed a desire that if we are indeed going to have a body camera program, the Axon system is the one to go with because of the tools afforded in almost every facet of the technology that helps to mitigate the overhead.”
Axon’s proposal, which would cost the city $753,000 over five years, would include storage, software and maintenance along with two cameras in each of 37 squad cars.
Bays added the cameras are intended to help build trust with the public.
“For the last five months, I’ve had the opportunity to review numerous videos recorded in the field by officers and I feel I can say that the public is accepting the technology based on the interactions I observed,” Bays said.
The department has been testing different types of body cameras over the last two years.
Tax Levy
City staff will also present the city’s 2019 property tax levy on Monday night. The proposed $25,158,224 levy includes the Bloomington Public Library levy of $4,871,840.
In a staff memo to the city council, the city expects the tax rates will drop slightly and would essentially be cost neutral for the owner of a $165,000 home.
Bloomington would capture an additional $225,000 and the library would gain an addition $48,000 without raising the tax rates, based on Equalized Assessed Valuation projections.
The council is expected to vote on the levy on Dec. 17.
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