The next step in public safety and transparency is here for the Omaha Police Department. The city council unanimously approves the purchase of almost 500 new body cameras and say it's money well spent.
$1.3 million will be allocated by the city for 460 Axon Flex Camera Systems. The new cameras would include automatic activation meaning they would turn on if an officer takes out his firearm, activates cruiser sirens or a tazer, or turns on the in-car camera.
Councilmembers see it as essential to transparency and keeping citizens safe.
"Absolutely i think it's a great investment, it's another commitment that i think the administration and the city council are showing how important public safety is," said Councilman Brinker Harding.
When all the new cameras are in place, every one of the 494 OPD officers assigned to uniform patrol and command staff will be equipped. Omaha will be the largest city to have full deployment with Axon's holster auto-activation technology.
The current system only activates when the officer turns it on which usually isn't the top priority when in a stressful situation.
"Before you pull your gun you're not going to reach up and touch your camera so when you pull your tazer out or pull your gun out that camera's going to turn on automatically," OPD Deputy Chief Kerry Neumann explained.
The next wave of body cams will start to hit the streets in May and all of them should be active by the end of 2018. The old cameras that had to be turned on will be upgraded to the automatic system.
