Metro East Sun

The Glen Carbon Village Board has considered its options regarding the purchase of police equipment that has now become a requirement under Illinois' SAFE-T Act.

Glen Carbon Police Chief Todd Link spoke to the village board about the equipment during the March 28 board meeting.

"I appreciate your patience throughout this process because this has been a difficult project and we had to go back to Finance Administration to discuss this," Link said during the meeting. "As you know, the SAFE-T Act requires that we purchase and implement body cameras for all of our sworn police officers no later than Jan. 1, 2025. As part of that, we have come before the board in the budgeting process and tried to put together the best projected cost that we would think that we need for this project. We were woefully short of that and had to go back to Finance and discuss, as I think we have it all worked out now."

Many law enforcement agencies across the Prairie State have already begun implementing the use of body-worn cameras. But with the law set to take effect at the beginning of 2025, other agencies are starting the process of buying the equipment and video storage systems ahead of the deadline.

Link told the board that the police department would like to purchase a bundle from Axon—the most popular and widely used police camera and technology company in the state and country—for $456,960. The bundle includes body cameras and tasers for all the officers along with cloud-based video storage. There is a deposit fee of $113,414 this fiscal year to start the purchasing process, and the rest would be paid in equal annual installments through fiscal year 2027. The contract would be for five years, at which point the Village could opt to stay with Axon or go with a different provider.

The chief and Lt. Ned Miller told the board that they had done extensive research on Axon as a company, the cameras and equipment, and the best possible budgeting for them. The trustees asked several questions, including the possible need for in-car cameras. Although those are not mandated by the state at this point, the Glen Carbon police department does have a car camera system. That system is still operational, but once it needs an upgrade the cameras can be integrated with the Axon body-worn camera system.

They also discussed how the system works for saving and retrieving footage from their cameras, as well as storage space and procedures for video evidence. There are state and local laws that dictate length of storage, and the department will save the footage in the cloud storage with Axon, which is industry standard.