The City of Port Townsend will shift from dash-mounted police cameras to body cameras to record arrests and other police activities.

Camera systems were developed to provide independent evidence at crime scenes and to assist with police accountability.

The City Council voted unanimously Sept. 3 to authorize the city manager to execute a contract with Axon Enterprise for the purchase and maintenance of a portable audio/visual recording system.

Police Chief Michael Evans presented the switch to body-mounted cameras as cheaper and more advantageous than a mere replacement of the department existing vehicle-mounted cameras.

Evans told the city council that, over a five-year period, the body-worn camera system would cost $85,078.51 for 20 cameras, whereas a new dash camera system would cost $93,161 for 11 cameras.

Aside from a more modest cost, the other benefits Evans cited included the ability of the audio/visual recording unit to travel with the officer, rather than being stuck in the patrol vehicle, and the lack of distance limitation from the patrol vehicle, since vehicle-mounted recorders fail to pick up audio past a certain range from the vehicle.

Evans also touted the body cameras’ eye-level recording, so that those watching the recordings “will see what the officer saw,” and noted that the recordings would be stored on the cloud, as opposed to the vehicle-mounted recordings, which currently require an entire server by themselves.

“Cloud” storage uses internet connectivity to upload recordings servers in a distributed global network of servers offered by companies like Amazon.

Although the police department still needs to hash out the exact details with its public records officer, Evans expects that recordings with no criminal or civil case retention value would be kept on the cloud for 90 days before being deleted.

In an answer to council member Bob Gray’s inquiries, Evans explained that Washington does not require police departments to maintain vehicle-mounted or body-mounted camera footage.

When asked about the body-mounted camera system’s “redaction” feature, Evans explained the software can be programmed to automatically obscure the faces of juveniles, victims and others for public records releases, whereas the vehicle-mounted camera system requires personnel to perform such redactions themselves.

Evans went into detail about the body-mounted camera system’s technology, which would be upgraded to all-new devices every two-and-a-half years, complete with warranties covering each such period, whereas a vehicle-mounted system would offer a five-year warranty with no upgrades.

Not only do the body-mounted cameras record in higher definition video, but their maker, Axon, is also the parent company of Taser, which allows the body cameras to integrate with Tasers.

Acting City Manager Nora Mitchell pointed out that a number of the vehicle-mounted camera systems being phased out, and the Teamsters Local 589, which represents the Port Townsend Police officers, has written a letter in support of the Axon technology.

Although Gray suggested retaining the existing vehicle-mounted cameras while also purchasing the body-mounted cameras, to provide a more complete context of footage, Evans recommended decommissioning the vehicle-mounted cameras “immediately,” due the expense of their use.