Waldwick council hears $413,000 police proposal to switch to Axon camera, in‑car and Taser system

WALDWICK — Police Chief Seaffort presented the Borough Council with a capital request to replace the department's body cameras, in‑car cameras and Tasers with Axon's integrated hardware-and-cloud evidence platform, saying the town's existing equipment is past its useful life and has produced repeated failures.

Seaffort told council members the WatchGuard in‑car and body camera systems are about six years old and that the department documented 24 device malfunction reports in the last four months, including swollen batteries that have required frequent replacement. He said the department currently uses WatchGuard (now owned by Motorola) and that transferring evidence to partner agencies that use Axon creates operational friction.

"We missed something on the body worn cameras that we shouldn't have missed," Seaffort said, and described automated activation, higher resolution sensors and improved redaction tools included in Axon's platform that would reduce manual redaction time and streamline evidence sharing with prosecutors. He said the bundled five‑year buy‑in price is $413,000, with equipment replacement every 2.5 years and an option to stretch payments across five years; Axon offered a no‑interest, five‑year payment arrangement with an initial year payment the chief said could be about $75,000.

Council members asked how the equipment would be funded and whether grants could offset costs. Seaffort said a grant had covered camera purchases in 2020 but that no current Attorney General grant was available; if a new camera grant is released he would apply for camera funding. He said the town could pay over five years (roughly $76,000–$78,000 annually under the current proposal) and that Axon allows staged payments.

Concerns from council included cybersecurity and the location of cloud storage, the cost to migrate existing WatchGuard footage (Seaffort said a quote of about $45,000 was discussed to convert legacy data), and how to measure return on investment. "There's a very large fee to change everything over at one time," Seaffort said about moving old footage into Axon's cloud, and he suggested pulling footage on a case‑by‑case basis unless the council authorized a full migration.

Seaffort defended the operational case for the bundle: single‑vendor integration reduces cross‑system errors, streamlines training and support and lowers administrative time spent on redaction. He described vendor warranty terms that would replace devices within an estimated 7–10 days when hardware fails, and said the Axon redaction tools could cut current redaction times substantially.

No purchase ordinance or final vote was taken; the item was presented as a capital request during the council's budget kickoff. Council members requested follow‑up information, including a detailed capital financing plan, any available grant opportunities, documented redaction time savings from comparator towns, a cybersecurity summary identifying cloud provider and protections, and a cost/benefit analysis that compares leasing or staged purchases with a lump‑sum capital appropriation.

The council also discussed related fleet planning: the police chief said this is a two‑car replacement year and that vehicle leasing options are under review; several members asked for a written financial analysis comparing leasing versus buying and a breakdown of upfit costs for new patrol cars.

Next steps: the chief will provide financing scenarios, any updated grant information and the IT/cybersecurity details requested by council so the council can consider whether to include the purchase in the 2026 capital budget.