TASER International today announced the purchase of 860 Axon body-worn video cameras and a five-year subscription to Evidence.com by the Los Angeles Police Department. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti further announced a plan by the city to equip a total of 7,000 officers with body cameras in 2015.
With this announcement, TASER is launching a new Evidence.com service plan called the "Officer Safety Plan," which was developed in close collaboration with the LAPD. The Officer Safety Plan includes all of the advanced features of Evidence.com, unlimited storage, a service plan that includes automatic upgrades of the Axon Cameras every 2.5 years, and upgrades of the associated TASER devices every five years, as well as full hardware equipment warranties and service (see details below). The LAPD has selected the Officer Safety Plan as its subscription plan to Evidence.com to maximize budget predictability and minimize total cost across both product suites.
"The Los Angeles Police Department continues to be a technology leader in law enforcement," said Los Angeles Police Department Chief of Police Charlie Beck. "Today, we are announcing a new program designed to provide maximum safety to our officers and the community we serve, while bringing a new level of trust and transparency to police work. In 2015, we will begin issuing wearable cameras to front line officers to increase transparency and to document the good work our officers do every day. It is our goal to make these important tools available to every front line officer over the next few years."
"We're thrilled that the Los Angeles Police Department has selected us to support them in this monumental step for their agency," says Rick Smith, Co-Founder and CEO of TASER International. "Given its size and world-wide recognition as a technology leader, the Los Angeles Police Department has unique logistical needs. We collaborated closely with LAPD to create our new Officer Safety Plan to help serve agencies that want to have complete predictability of the costs of their on-officer video and TASER programs in one simple plan. We consider ourselves a long-term partner and want to ensure that our customers are successful in getting their officers equipped with our body cameras without the concern of managing variable data storage costs in the future."
This order was announced yesterday by the Mayor of Los Angeles at a press conference, along with intention to budget for a total of approximately 7,000 cameras in the next budget year to equip all front line LAPD officers. The order for the first 860 units is expected in the fourth quarter of 2014 and is expected to ship in the first half of 2015. Revenue will be recognized over the five-year term of the program.
About TASER International, Inc.
Founded in 1993, TASER International was first known for its electrical weapons for law enforcement. TASER's growing suite of technology solutions includes Axon body-worn video cameras and Evidence.com, a secure digital evidence management platform.