New Berlin Common Council Approves Police Body Camera Contract

NEW BERLIN, WI — The New Berlin Common Council approved a contract between the city and Axon Enterprises for police body cameras at a special meeting on Wednesday.

Axon will provide 50 body cameras and their associated hardware to the New Berlin Police Department for an estimated total of $217,212,79. In addition to the body cameras, 17 fleet vehicle camera kits and their equipment will be provided for a total of $123,685.19, according to contract documents submitted to the city.

Payments for the cameras are scheduled to be made out over the next five years, the contracts show. The funds for the decision were approved and budgeted prior to Wednesday's meeting, which was only for the contract approval.

"This initiative began back in June of 2020," Police Captain Steve Thompson said in the meeting. "I was asked by the chief to run a committee to thoroughly investigate body cameras because we know the tremendous cost that they carry and the importance that they have to us

"That committee met and we first researched all viable options for body cameras and squad cameras that would work for us. We looked at multiple different companies," Thompson added.

The expected introduction of body cameras to the New Berlin Police Department was first reported in September.

"We didn't want to be the last ones to have them. I feel like we're somewhere in the middle now," Police Captain Mike Glider told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in September.

The cameras can help to prevent misconduct, and also to prevent false claims against the police, Glider told the Journal Sentinel.

The decision to bring in body cameras comes after a fatal police shooting in New Berlin in June that went unrecorded, Patch reported.