The City of Bedford is in the process of purchasing dashboard and body cameras for all of the cruisers and officers in the police department. The purchase was approved by the Bedford City Council earlier this month, and City Manager Mike Mallis sees this as a good addition to how law enforcement performs its role.

“We researched this over the last few years,” Mallis said at a Feb. 1 council meeting. “I think from an operational standpoint, … from a transparency standpoint (and from a) safety standpoint, this is a good thing for the community and for the department.”

According to a recent Associated Press article, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said only 183 of about 900 law enforcement agencies in Ohio have body cameras for officers and are following guidelines set by the Ohio Collaborative Community-Police Advisory Board. Mallis said Bedford has been working with the advisory board to make sure the department’s camera system will be in complete compliance.

Bedford looked at quotes from three companies for the camera contracts and went with Axon Enterprise, who had the lowest bid for the first year of service at $104,200. Mallis said the city decided to go with Axon based on demonstrations they had seen and other research they had conducted, including contacting other cities that use Axon. Mallis said buying the camera equipment is only part of the investment. The funds also include the maintenance, licenses and data storage.

“I want to commend (Finance Director) Frank Gambosi who did a great job of breaking it down as far as the cost,” Mallis said. He added that Police Chief Martin Stemple, “has done and outstanding job with the senior staffing as far as working with the state of Ohio in establishing policies and procedures.”

“There’s a lot of things that have to go into this endeavor, Mallis said. “Especially with the data having to be stored and making sure we have an ample amount of storage.”

Mallis said the city hopes to implement camera use this year. The agreement with Axon will run for five years, and the department willget new hardware in year three and in year five. The cost of the program will be roughly $42,000 each of the years following the initial year’s cost.

Altogether, there will be 10 dashboard cameras for the police department cruisers, and 30 body cameras.