City of Buckeye Police Department New and Upgraded Body-Worn Camera Grant to Ensure Officer Accountability and Transparency.

The City of Buckeye spans 640 square miles and has a population of approximately 114,000 people. Approximately 20,000 of the population reside within a federally designated disadvantaged community within Buckeye. Buckeye is one of the fastest growing cities in the country. Buckeye is only 15% built out and is estimated to have a population of 295,400 people by 2040, according to the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) https://www.growbuckeye.com/pages/choose-buckeye. Buckeye Police Department (BPD) saw a 21.5% increase in calls for service from 2021 (43,343) to 2023 (52,665) 638472307122000000 (buckeyeaz.gov). This increase in calls for service is projected to continually increase as the City’s population continues to grow. BPD currently has 180 total personnel and a shortage of sworn officers. This requires BPD to evaluate ways to ensure that their officers’ time is being utilized efficiently. BPD currently employs a community policing model wherein officers are active within the community. BPD is operating with obsolete Body Worn Camera (BWC) technologies that are inefficient which contributes to extended time spent on writing reports by BPD officers; time that could be utilized aiding more citizens who request BPD’s assistance. This grant project seeks to enhance and support BPD’s goal of a culture of accountability and performance, provide transparency within the community, and provide accurate records of law enforcement related interactions to protect parties from false allegations.

BPD seeks to resolve the inefficiencies through the expansion and upgrade of their current BWCs that are obsolete and reaching the end of their useful life. The 200 upgraded BWCs requested have a greater battery capacity of 13 hours to ensure that events are recorded without worry of the BWC dying. The new BWCs also have bi-directional communications capabilities between multiple viewers and the wearer, to allow real-time communication, real-time location access to remote viewers, 160-degree field of view visibility, clearer and more detailed recordings, and the ability to connect to an additional point-of-view camera that can be utilized on the officer’s glasses, hat, shoulder, or head.