The Phoenix Police Department will spend millions of dollars to upgrade antiquated cellphone technology, outfit more officers with body-worn cameras and—perhaps most unusually—buy brain scanners for police training on "violent encounters."
Phoenix police will spend $60,000 on a high-tech brainwave-monitoring system endorsed by elite athletes to help reduce officer use-of-force incidents, including shootings.
The city will be among the only law enforcement groups nationally to use it.
Phoenix City Council gave the go-ahead earlier this month for police to buy 20 Versus headsets that monitor brain waves and activity. Officials also authorized the purchase of 20 iPods that pair with the headsets and 880 neuroperformance assessments.
Phoenix PD's roughly $3 million tech-laden list is the latest in a growing tally of police projects recently considered by Phoenix officials. With a price tag totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, those new buildings, staff increases, and vehicle upgrades are likely to come up again next year in a question to taxpayers, reports the Arizona Conference of Police and Sheriffs. But the new technology is already on the way.
