Surge in Body Worn Camera Requests from Law Enforcement and Governments

323% RISE IN NUMBER OF BODY WORN CAMERA BIDS FROM 2014 TO 2015

One year ago, I spearheaded the research project at BidPrime, “Local Law Enforcement Agencies Grappling With the Purchase of Body Worn Cameras”. Post our original review, we were pleased to note others in procurement, government bid services, and elsewhere got involved and weighed in with their own research and opinions to further stimulate dialogue and provide information on this issue.

Being a topic that continues to be towards the forefront of the news cycle and a technology increasingly in demand by law enforcement, government, military, and other entities, Bill Culhane, from BidPrime, and I collaborated on the following update to our original analysis. We submit that most will agree that body worn camera technology is no longer a “recent addition to the US public lexicon”.

As you will note in the following infographic, the demand for this technology more than tripled from 2014, through the end of 2015. Some additional data/research…

Of course, this debate has reached the steps of the White House. In early 2015, the White House pledged $75 million toward nationwide adoption of body worn cameras by police. On September 21st, 2015, Attorney General Loretta Lynch revealed that the U.S. Justice Department had allocated grants of greater than $23.2 million to 73 local and tribal agencies in 32 states. The DOJ included in those grants measures to evaluate the post-implementation impact.

As reported by CBS News, July 7th, 2015, “Nearly 90 percent of local police departments were using some type of video camera technology in 2013, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics survey. About 17 percent used automated license plate readers and about 49 percent used video cameras for the surveillance of public areas.” Along with the two reports on body worn cameras, back in March 2015 we also detailed the growth in the automated license plate reader industry. Assuredly, future historical reporting will reflect a dramatic rise in these statistics for the years 2014 and 2015.

Bill and I were discussing this research with a colleague and he succinctly pointed out, “It’s interesting how the news and events can affect purchasing.” While that is, and has been, true for a very long time, it does serve to remind us that news and events can move the needle in procurement. For anyone involved in, or around, the government purchasing / procurement sphere, it comes as zero surprise that this series of events led to this bid request, of course, found in the BidPrime database.

SINCE START OF 2016, A SAMPLE OF THE HEADLINES…

“Get an inside look at the body worn cameras used by Calgary police”

“Garfield Police Department approved for body cameras”

“Denver Police Department rolls out body cameras to first wave of …”

“City buying 80 body cameras for officers”

“City of Aurora to Purchase 427 VIEVU LE4 Body Worn Cameras”