Sycamore police to upgrade body cameras in 2024

SYCAMORE – The Sycamore Police Department plans to upgrade its body camera equipment, which will provide every patrol officer with their own body camera and upgraded batteries meant to last a full shift, said Police Chief Jim Winters.

The Sycamore City Council recently approved a plan to switch the city’s vendors that provides the cameras. The new five-year $126,606 contract with Motorola also will come with its own cloud-based digital storage for camera footage record-keeping, according to city documents.

“This would allow us to outfit all of our officers with body cameras,” Winters said. “Right now they’re sharing body cameras and also they do not have multiple batteries, so it’s not uncommon for an officer in a 12-hour shift – after 9½ or 10 hours, especially on a busy day where they’re gathering a lot of footage from their body-worn camera – for them to notify dispatch, ‘Hey my body camera just ran out.’ We don’t want that to happen. We want those body cameras to be reliable for them.”

The department first started using the cameras – usually attached to patrol officers’ uniforms recording full-time while on duty – in January 2021 after first getting approved in October 2020. In August 2022, the Sycamore City Council approved a five-year $123,718 contract to provide cloud-based digital storage for the camera footage.

Sycamore wasn’t the only DeKalb County area police agency to begin wearing body cameras in 2021. The DeKalb Police Department also began using the technology in early 2021. Law enforcement officials have said the cameras add a level of transparency necessary for modern police work.

The department recently applied for and was awarded a $70,000 grant to help purchase new body cameras, said Sycamore City Manager Michael Hall.

Motorola – which provides the body cameras for Sycamore – invited the city to renegotiate a new five-year deal which would encompass both the cameras and the storage. The grant is expected to go toward the new contract, offiicals said.

The new contract – approved Dec. 4 after a unanimous Sycamore City Council vote – is $2,888 more than the former five-year contract, or $577 per year more, city officials said.

With the update, Motorola is expected to provide the city with another camera upgrade to the latest model in three years.

“These new upgraded cameras will get new detachable batteries and every officer will have their own camera, too,” Winters said. “It also comes with a no-fault warranty on it.”