Tulsa Police Department receiving $28m in new tech

TULSA, Okla. — The Tulsa Police Department signed a $28 million 10-year contract with Axon, a vendor that is supplying them with new game-changing technology.

The department is getting all new cameras and tripling the number of cameras they already have.

The package includes 650 body cams, 650 cell phones, and 550 in-car camera systems. They’re also getting new Tasers.

“We think we will see three times more video than we currently have,” said Major Ryan Perkins with TPD.

There will be two cameras in each patrol car, one facing the dash and one facing the back seat.

The shooting that killed Sergeant Craig Johnson pushed TPD to reimplement dashcams. The evidence caught on dash cam the night Johnson was killed secured a conviction in the case. So, the Mayor and Chief made it a priority to get those cameras in every patrol car.

“The tragic shooting of Craig Johnson and Zarkeshan really showed us, he had one of the last in-car camera systems and it was the essential piece of evidence that was able to bring that suspect to justice so the Mayor looked at us and said we’re going to have in-car cameras and good body cameras,” Perkins said.

All of the cameras are connected to the officers’ weapons and patrol lights. If a gun or taser is drawn, the body camera is activated. If the patrol lights go on, all the cameras are activated.

“Those high-stress incidents where the officer has to get their weapon system out - it’s going to be recorded so we can make sure that we’re being transparent with how the officers are acting,” Perkins said.

The cameras are also connected to a new software system that can be accessed from the officer’s cell phone. Officers can completely manage investigations from their phones and access their media in a cloud-like interface.

“This is probably the most exciting thing for me as an investigator,” said Traffic Investigator Craig Heatherly with TPD.

“It makes our job a lot easier,” Heatherly also said.

The in-car cameras also act as full-time license plate readers. So, if an officer drives by a stolen or flagged car, the camera will alert them.

“It’s like having a Flock camera driving around all the time,” Perkins said.

TPD is also changing the body cam policy. Officers are now required to activate their cameras any time they are involved in a criminal or administrative investigation. That means every call will be recorded. Before, they would only have to activate the camera on certain calls.

“We want the citizens to understand that our officers are doing a great job most of the time,” Perkins said.

TPD says they’ve been installing the tech and training officers since January. They’re about two-thirds of the way through the rollout and plan to have everything installed and every officer trained by mid-June.

“We are estimating that we are gaining 15 to 20 officers in the time we’re going to save just by gaining this technology so we’re not going to work harder we’re going to work smarter,” Perkins said.