"It actually never worked 10 minutes," Crossville City Manager Greg Wood told the council during its Oct. 4 work session.
Brooks said the cameras previously approved rebooted three times in the span of 30 minutes. That's not acceptable for cameras that are increasingly important in criminal prosecution and civil litigation, Brooks said.
"I can't tell you how important it is that everything be documented," said city attorney Randy York. "If it's on a video tape, the court can look at it and see. It doesn't really matter a whole lot what anybody else says. It's so important to capture those moments."
York added, "You can't have a system that reboots itself every 10 minutes."
In addition to liability payments, lawsuits could also result in an order to pay attorney fees, which can easily be several hundred thousand dollars.
Brooks said, "I promised the council I wouldn't buy it if it wouldn't work."
The city received a $42,000 grant. Brooks said the company submitting the low bid provided body cameras and car cameras to test. The body cameras worked great, Brooks said. The car cameras did not, and the company was not responsive to calls from the city's information technology department.
Brooks also outlined the reason he was not in favor of the next lowest bids, citing concerns about company longevity or prior negative experiences.
He recommended the city purchase a system from Axon, with a bid of $365,407.
"It's one of the better systems out," Brooks said, adding it is also used by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, Nashville Metro Police, and London police.
The system is priced more than the $200,000 budgeted for police cameras, but Brooks worked with the company on a financing arrangement. The city will pay $200,000 this year and, beginning next year, pay $40,000 a year for four years. There will not be additional fees for maintenance during the five years of the financing arrangement and the city will not be charged a finance fee.
Wood said the city of Cookeville uses the same system and Crossville officers have tested and used that equipment.
The council unanimously approved the purchase during its Oct. 11 meeting.
© 2022 the Crossville Chronicle (Crossville, Tenn.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
