(Arnolds Park)– The Arnolds Park City Council Wednesday approved a proposal to update equipment used by the city’s police force. The agreement with Axon comes at a total cost of $345,229 over 10 years. Police Chief Jeremy Kleve says it includes online training…
“We’ll have basically a play gun and a play taser. You can go in and it has everything from mental health, and that’s probably 80 to 90 percent of what we deal with now days. But we can go into the computer system. So like a new officer, you can set it at two, so it’s a little easier for a new officer. You get a seasoned officer you can set it at 10 and they have to do more talking to de-escalate the situation before you use a weapon. That’s all virtual training right on the computer, right at our office.”
Kleve says under the agreement, body cameras will be replaced every two and-a-half years, with tasers and in-car cameras being replaced every five years to keep up with the latest technology. In addition, he says the the new tasers will automatically activate the officer’s body camera whenever it’s pulled out.
Kleve says the training will be especially valuable as the department will soon be hiring some new officers due to upcoming retirements.
