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Tumwater police complete Axon body‑worn camera rollout; council hears policy, retention and redaction plans
Summary
The police chief told council the Axon body-worn camera program is deployed — 49 body cameras and most in-car cameras installed — and described translation tools, redaction-assist staffing and retention schedules under Washington State records rules; council requested metrics and a public demonstration.
The Tumwater police chief reported at the March 24 work session that the city’s body-worn camera program is fully deployed: officers have received their devices, in-car cameras are nearly finished, and staffing and records processes have been set up to manage the expected increase in video evidence.
"As of this morning, the body worn camera rollout is complete with the last of the officers being trained and receiving their body worn cams," the chief said. The chief told council the city purchased the cameras and secured a five‑year Axon contract that includes periodic equipment replacement (body cameras refreshed every 30 months under the contract and in-car cameras every five years if the contract is renewed). The city also promoted an administrative sergeant and a records supervisor to manage equipment and the large volume of video.
Policy, retention and redaction: staff described a redaction-assist workflow that uses software to auto-identify faces or objects and a human records reviewer for quality control. The chief said retention will follow the Washington State records-retention framework and varies by case type: inadvertent recordings have short retention windows while collisions or felony cases may be retained for a year or longer. On public disclosure, the chief said the city must follow public-records law and applies statutory exemptions where eligible; redactions will be applied per law but there is generally broad public access to recordings.
Translation and community access: staff demonstrated that Axon’s translation feature — a subscription add-on that supports more than 50 languages — was used in the field that morning to assist a Spanish-only driver. Councilors asked whether usage metrics (for translation and activation rates) could be tracked; staff agreed to collect metrics and consider a demonstration for council.
Next steps and oversight: council asked for further detail on retention timelines by record type, chain-of-custody and the public-disclosure workflow for sensitive incidents. Staff said they would return with more precise retention schedules and suggested a future in-person demo or recorded sample to show redaction and translation in practice.
