1,500 Body Cameras Coming to the Cleveland Police Department

Body cameras are officially coming to the Cleveland Police Department. The news comes via the company the department is buying from, TASER International, which announced yesterday the city had purchased 1,500 of their “AXON flex and body cameras” (above) and a five-year subscription to their digital storage and management site, evidence.com.

“These orders were received in the first quarter of 2015 and are expected to ship in the first quarter of 2015,” the company said.

Here’s what the department will be getting, according to TASER:

TASER’s AXON cameras are small, yet highly visible, and can be attached securely to sunglasses, a cap, a shirt collar, or a head mount. They are powered by a pocketsize battery pack which ensures recording capability during an entire shift. When recording, the cameras capture a wide-angle, full-color view of what an officer is facing. The video automatically uploads via a docking station to EVIDENCE.com, a cloud-based storage and management system, where it can be easily accessed for review. The video files stored online or on the AXON video camera are secure and include a chain of custody with audit trails.

EVIDENCE.com helps police capture, manage, and share their digital evidence without the complexity or cost of installing in-house servers. It enables greater transparency through seamless integration with the industry-leading AXON body-worn video cameras. EVIDENCE.com is the most secure, scalable, and cost-effective solution for managing all types of digital evidence. EVIDENCE.com automates the upload process to ensure security and integrity while keeping officers in the field rather than sitting at computers.

The “Flex” body cameras — which clip on to glasses, hats, and so on — go for $599 apiece (although we don’t know right now what the wholesale price was for Cleveland):

TASER’s AXON Flex is a breakthrough point-of-view video system that improves transparency between law enforcement agencies and their communities, while protecting officers from false claims. 1000’s of law enforcement officers’ feedback developed AXON Flex, making it the most customer driven officer worn camera solution ever produced. There’s no one-size-fits all for law enforcement, so TASER created a multitude of flexible mounting options to meet each agency’s specific needs. Officers can mount AXON Flex on their eyewear, ball cap, collar, helmet, epaulette, body, or simply on the dash of the cruiser. With AXON Flex… you choose!

The “AXON body” cameras start at $399 (again, we don’t know the wholesale price):

ASER’s AXON body is an ultra-durable on-officer camera designed to balance both simplicity and performance. AXON body provides agencies with a core unibody design for easy deployment. A 130-degree wide-angle lens, multiple on-body mounting options, a full shift buffer, and easy deployment provide agencies with a single button solution to recording digital evidence.

Taser International’s stock jumped 6.11% yesterday after they announced that Cleveland (1,500 cameras), Tampa, Fl, police (60 cameras), and Scottsdale, AZ, police (40 cameras) had put in orders.

We’ll update the story when we know more

This article appears in Jan 21-27, 2015.