Mokena Police Officers Will Wear Body-Worn Cameras This Fall

MOKENA, IL — Beginning this fall, officers with the Mokena Police Department will be outfitted with body-worn cameras that police officials hope provides more accountability in the department’s dealings with local residents.

The Mokena Village Council recently approved a contract with Axon Enterprises that will provide 35 new body-worn cameras for the village’s police force, police chief Brian Benton confirmed this week. The contract is valued at more than $258,000 which will be paid out over the next five years.

The cost of the cameras, software licensing, and maintenance will run the village $51,650.84 for the first year and $51,650.82 for each of the remaining four years of the contract, according to village officials.

Illinois state law mandates that beginning this year, cities and municipalities with populations between 100,000 and $500,000 residents must require officers to wear body-worn cameras. The law mandates that by 2024, cities with populations between 50,000 and 100,000 must require the cameras to be worn by officers before the law extends to communities with less than 50,000 residents beginning in 2025.

Benton said that he expects that even two years before village officers are required to wear them, his department will begin using the devices this fall depending on training and policy implementation.

Benton said the goal of putting the cameras into use goes beyond a statewide mandate.

“We would like (residents) to know that we hope the cameras will improve police accountability, strengthen public trust through transparency and help improve officer safety by serving as a deterrent to those that might be inclined to escalate a situation or resist arrest,” Benton told Patch in an email this week.

The village council also recently approved a five-year contract extension with Flock Safety, which provides license plate reader cameras for the village. Flock Safety has said that the cameras assist law enforcement officers in the apprehension of suspects who may have eluded other departments and that can be tracked by using footage captured by the license plate readers.

As part of the deal, the village agreed to pay $42,000 over the first year of the contract and $46,000 per year for the remaining four years of the pact. Flock Safety offered municipalities a package deal with a set price of $2,500 per camera if officials agreed to the five-year contract.

Otherwise, the company would have raised the cost of the cameras to $3,000 per year, which was an increase of $500 per year from the previous contract.