Logo for the Wausau Police Department. Image courtesy: Wausau PD/Facebook
WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — The Wausau Police Department is one step closer to a new ten-year contract with Axon for recording devices and tasers after the city’s finance committee approved the proposal on Tuesday
Patrol Captain Todd Baeten says it sounds like a long commitment, but the department has been using their products for the last few years and they’ve exceeded all expectations. “We’ve been very impressed with their customer service and the hardware itself. The products work effectively and do what Axon says they are going to do.”
The contract calls for the city to pay $235,708 per year, which is an increase over their previous five-year deal with Axon. Baeten says throughout that deal the cost of the equipment has nearly doubled, making the ten-year contract the best value for the city. “If we went with the five-year contract I would have no reason to not believe that those [costs] would double again. Let’s say if in five years we had to renegotiate with Axon or another vendor those prices might be $450,000 or $470,000 annually.”
Axon has agreed to provide the department with body cameras for officers and dashboard cameras for vehicles. They’ll also provide interview recording technology and a mobile app for an officer’s department-issued cell phone that will allow them to upload pictures from a crime scene or accident directly to the evidence server.
Tasers are also included in the deal.
Baeten said they did field a second proposal from the same company that operates the same equipment for Marathon County. But their preference is to stick with what they know.
Additionally, the second bid did come in above Axon’s, and switching would involve an additional cost for transferring hundreds of terabytes of evidence from one server to another.
The proposal came with the support of Wausau Finance Director MaryAnn Groat who says the increased cost is coming at them soon enough in the budget process that they should be able to account for it.
The committee also voted to allow the department to hire an additional sworn officer beyond its capacity of 79, a move that will allow them to speed up the process of replacing two officers that will be retiring in January.
Chief Ben Bliven says they currently have three people in their candidate pool that they’d like to hire before someone else does. “If we wait on hiring one, it’s a competitive employment market for police officers and we don’t want to lose out on that candidate.”
Candidates must first complete a 4.5-month Police Academy before they spend five months in field training. Bliven says the sooner they start that clock, the sooner the officer can take on their own patrol shift.
“If you approve this it would allow us to have somebody 4.5 months ahead of schedule, as opposed to waiting to hire them in January,” added Bliven.
Additionally, Bliven himself is nearing his resignation. If the city hires internally, it would create another vacancy through a reshuffling of the leadership structure. He admits that he has no control over who the city’s Police and Fire Commisison will choose, but he does recommend an internal candidate.
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