GRIDLEY, CA (MPG) - On December 9^th, Gridley City Council heard from Gridley Police Chief Rodney Harr, requesting supplemental funds for the purpose of purchasing additional body cameras for Gridley Police Department officers.

Chief Harr also requested funds for licensing and cloud storage for four new Axon Body 3 Cameras, which would be added to the department’s existing 15 units (one out for repairs according to Chief Harr’s presentation) for a total of 20 body-worn cams.

Gridley Police Department has been utilizing body-worn cameras since 2014. According to the agenda item outlining the background on contracting with Axon Enterprises, which GPD has been doing since 2020, additional services include Axon Evidence, which provides cloud-based storage for this digital information. Axon Evidence aids in the storage of such evidence and provides easy access, management, and retrieval features for the use of information in legal cases.

Chief Harr informed Council that for litigation purposes, videos are kept for approximately 2 years when assigned a case number. Evidence that is not being used in legal matters drops off after a set amount of time, but Chief Harr informs that his department has a way of backing things up for archival purposes. Currently footage is annually reviewed by the GPD IT department and stored via CD for archival purposes.

The importance of the body-worn cameras was stressed to the City Council, the Chief saying that they “help assist officers’ investigations.  It also dramatically decreases the amount of citizen complaints that come in because you have the footage,” and that his department and officers can “quickly render out the decision on what’s justified or not justified or otherwise.”

The additional cost to the current contract for four cameras, licensing, and cloud-based storage, including the Technical Assurance Program, for a 32-month period is as follows (information provided in the agenda packet): $5,438.24 -1^st year, $5436.59 – 2^nd year, and $5,436. 59 – 3^rd year. The total annual expense, including the new and existing camera units would be approximately $20,103.97

City councilmembers voted unanimously to approve the agenda item.