Training begins today that will lead towards body and car cameras for Bartholomew County Sheriff’s deputies.
The first part of the training will be with employees of Columbus Collision Vehicle Upfitters, who will be shown how to install the equipment this week, sheriff department Chief Deputy Maj. Chris Lane said. Representatives of the manufacturer, AXON Enterprise Inc. of Scottsdale, Arizona, will continue their instruction with company personnel through Wednesday, he said.
Joining the training will be certain members of the Bartholomew County Information Technology Department, county IT director Scott Mayes said. This will allow his staff to assist with in-car installation planning, as well as finalize deployment steps required for the system to become functional, Mayes said.
The cameras, as well as unlimited cloud storage and other technology, represents an $800,000 investment that will be paid over a five-year-period.
With 57 body cameras and 54 car cameras, Lane emphasized it will take some time to get each patrol vehicle to the upfitter’s location on South Mapleton Street.
Once the local installers are thoroughly trained, there’s an assumption the process should take less time per vehicle, Lane said. But that doesn’t take into account there are different models of patrol vehicles ranging up to eight years old, so installation won’t be the same for every vehicle, he said.
In addition, the new equipment has to be installed carefully, so it does not interfere with radios or other electrical gear, Lane said.
One key step in making the system operational is the installation and setup of evidence.com. — a software provided by AXON that connects and manages data, video, audio, photos, documents and more in a single secure location, Mayes said.
A decision has been made to wait until training is completed and all parties have collaborated before trying to forecast a timeline to have functional cameras in all cars and on all deputies, Mayes said. But Lane says he’s hopeful all the installations will be completed by the end of April.
“It could be more or it could be less,” Lane said. “It depends on how many cars they can get done per day.”
If all goes as planned, the few cars used for training purposes will have functioning body and car cams by the end of this week, Lane said.
Columbus Police officers have worn body cameras since 2015 and had in-car cameras for more than 20 years, said Chief Mike Richardson.
“This has been supported by the community for a long, long time,” Lane said. “It provides protection on both sides — for the public and the officers in general.”
