By Megan Kelley
Staff Writer
Oxford – The Village of Oxford Police Department will be purchasing new body cameras after a request made by Chief Mike Solwold was approved unanimously by the village council on Sept.12.
The OPD will purchase three body cameras from Axon for a total cost of $23,598.58. The purchase is expected to be spread over five years for an annual cost of $4,719.22.
The department currently has two body cameras through a company called WOLFCOM.
“WOLFCOM is the cheapest and the product proves it. The clips to the body cams are attached to the base, the base rails that the camera is on breaks too frequently. When sending the clip in for repair, not only does it take months but the base still needs repairs. To repair the base, you have to purchase a new camera because the broken rails will not hold the clips,” Solwold said.
Another issue is that there is no cloud storage, meaning that the department has to use thumb drives that then need to be mailed or hand delivered to a court, prosecutor or attorney.
The OPD also looked at cameras from Motorola, which had the second lowest price, but were unable to receive cameras to test out because of the order size.
“Axon is the highest cost but has been the most reliable. When shopping three bids, Axon immediately sent three cameras for trial,” Solwold said.
According to Solwold, the department currently has a contract with Axon for tasers and has been using the Axon cameras since the Memorial holiday and have had no issues.
“We love them and they work efficiently,” Solwold said.
Solwold expects to use one of the three cameras as a backup in case one needs to be sent for repairs.
“We have two officers on – for the most part until three a.m. – so if one is down then at least we will still have the two body cams because we can use that back up one,” Solwold said.
Reserve Sergeant James Sommers echoed Solwold’s recommendation, noting that he expects there to be some unforeseen cost savings when it comes to cloud storage later. Sommers said the department has one-and-a-half terabytes of storage but has only used 230 gigabytes since the Memorial Day holiday and that the department has not yet deleted anything.
Sommers also said that while Motorola was cheaper, the contract only replaces the camera once in the middle of the life cycle while Axon replaces the camera twice; once in the middle of the life cycle and then again at the end of the five-year contract.
Additionally, the Axon clips are made with a metal alloy and not plastic like both Motorola and WOLFCOM.
The council found the information presented by Solwold and Sommers to point to Axon being the best product to going forward, especially when factoring in the length of time it takes to repair, with Councilmember Lori Bourgeau pointing out that if Motorola couldn’t even send cameras out for testing because of the order size, what could that mean later down the road if repairs are needed.
The council voted 5-0 to approve the purchase but not before asking if three would be enough, which Solwold said would be sufficient.