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Killeen Police Chief Pete Lopez Jr. at Tuesday’s city council meeting outlined an upgrade to police technology through a contract with Axon Enterprise.
The technology includes body cameras, docking stations, a virtual reality headset and a tablet, contracted as part of a comprehensive eight-year package, according to the presentation attached to the agenda.
Lopez told the council that the Killeen Police Department wants to take advantage of Axon’s body cameras, digital evidence management systems and real-time data analytics.
“These innovations are designed to improve the efficiency and transparency of the KPD and foster stronger relationships with the community we serve,” he said.
According to the presentation, the initial cost will be $1.7 million in the first year, but Lopez says it will save the city $3.1 million over the next few years because of its “enhanced capabilities.”
He also said the transition to Axon would streamline nine existing technology functions, resulting in cost reductions worth about $773,000.
Lopez highlighted some of the Killeen Police Department’s technology gaps. These included integration, financial considerations, training needs, ethical concerns, slower response times and challenges analyzing crime, among others.
“We care about data quality to ensure its accuracy, consistency and reliability,” Lopez explained. “And data storage issues are the most important.”
He also said ethical concerns were particularly important to residents.
“As a city and police department, we must protect sensitive information from breaches and unauthorized access,” Lopez said. “Additional and appropriate auditing procedures ensure that this technology is used ethically and respectfully of civil liberties.”
Lopez stressed that the new technology provided by Axon would ensure greater efficiency.
“Currently, assistant employees spend 22 hours a month doing things that Axon can automate because it’s all captured by a single camera, searching and tagging digital evidence and writing reports,” he said. “With 20 to 50 employees, that’s about 5,500 hours a month.”
Lopez said Axon would reduce work to six hours per month for each employee, a 75% reduction.
“The efficiency saved by Axon allows KPD to gain 66,000 additional hours per year for employees to respond to citizen calls for help.”
Mayor pro tempore Jessica Gonzalez asked where the data collected by the KPD goes and who is responsible for collecting it.
Lopez responded that the data belonged to KPD and was evaluated on a weekly or monthly basis.
