The Belleville Police Services Board has carried a motion that would upgrade Belleville police’s tasers and expand the capabilities of its body-worn cameras.
Belleville police say the current model taser used, the Taser X26P, will not be supported by the company Axon in 2023 and that upgrades are needed.
“The current tasers that we’re using are reaching the end of their life cycle and it’s just a natural part of being able to equip the officers with the tools that they need to do their job,” Belleville Police Chief Mike Callaghan told media members after the board meeting.
The newest version from Axon is the Taser 7.
Axon also supplies the body cameras for Belleville police officers.
Chief Callaghan says it makes sense to be supplied with a taser from the same company that supplies the body cameras.
“It’s the benefit of being able to save taxpayer dollars by purchasing from the same company that we use for our body worn cameras,” Chief Callaghan said.
The OSP7+ pricing program, which would combine the acquisition of the tasers with the expansion of body camera capabilities, would see an annual cost of $325,797 each year in a five-year contract.
This would be an annual cost difference of $63,019 from the current plan.
As part of the deal, the police force would receive 92 tasers which will be delivered under a hybrid model that would allow use of the tasers to frontline officers as well as a pool for staff who are not assigned to frontline duties, including investigators or senior officials who would sign out the additional tasers.
Callaghan says the 92 tasers should be able to cover the force.
“We’ve tried to minimize the amount of expenditures we’re doing in relation to purchasing these tasers but in the same token making sure that we have a sufficient point quantity for those frontline officers,” Callaghan said.
Additional benefits for the force would include the ability to access Axon’s Virtual Reality Training which focuses on de-escalation, critical thinking, and empathy. It would also allow the force the ability to create a portal for residents to send video evidence of a crime.
More of the benefits can be found here.
