The Jamestown City Council discussed possibly approving the purchase of 63 new body cameras for the Jamestown Police Department at the annual cost of $70,120. The contract for the cameras would be for five years. P-J photo by Dennis Phillips

The Jamestown Police Department is looking to revamp the body cameras its personnel uses.

On Monday, the Jamestown City Council discussed the proposal to purchase 63 body cameras for the annual cost of $70,120. The contract for the cameras would be for five years.

Mark Dean, city IT and communications director, said the current model — Safety Vision –body cameras the department uses have been in operation during the last three years. He said, about a year and a half ago, some of the cameras started failing. He added that some officers need to share cameras, which has led to some problems.

Dean said the new company, Axon Enterprise, will replace any camera not working properly within a week. He said cloud computing storage would be used to store the videos. The city will also pay $12,669 annually for the cloud storage provider.

Dean said there will be two spare cameras if there is an issue with one. He said the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office uses Axon cameras and they’ve had no problems.

The cost for the new cameras this year will be prorated May to December at the cost of $46,747. The cloud storage will also be prorated this year at the cost of $8,446. If the purchase is approved by the council during its voting session meeting May 26, contingency funding will be used. In the future years, the cost will be included in the city’s annual budget.

The Jamestown Police Department aren’t the only ones looking to phase in new body cameras. Some New York state troopers will begin wearing body cameras on patrol, phasing in their use years after cameras were adopted by many other state and local law enforcement agencies.

Body-worn cameras will be introduced to Troop G in the Albany area this month and be expanded on a rolling basis, with statewide deployment expected by the end of the year. The rollout of 3,000 cameras at a cost of $7.6 million a year is the result of a law signed in June, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday.

A nationwide Associated Press survey in 2019 found that New York State Police were the largest primary state law enforcement agency not equipped with body or dashboard cameras at that time. The cameras also are used widely by local police agencies.

Troopers will be required to record video in a number of situations, including when they exit a patrol vehicle to interact with a person, all uses of force and arrests, all searches of people and property and interactions with emotionally disturbed people.

The cameras will automatically start recording whenever a patrol vehicle’s emergency lighting is activated and anytime troopers unholster their firearms or stun guns.