FORT PIERCE — The Fort Pierce Police Department will receive new body cameras, Tasers and artificial intelligence technology under a $10 million contract with Axon approved by the city.
Police Chief David M. Smith said the agreement includes a range of technology intended to expand the department's capabilities.
"It includes the body cameras, tasers, and a numerous number of AI tools," he said. "Like most products, they have several tiers, and we were able to work with them to get the top tier, which includes, for those paying attention out there, for AI. There's so many breakthroughs happening so quickly. This allows us to be on the forefront with Axon for those tools."
Among the technology included in the agreement are features intended to help officers communicate with people who speak languages other than English.
"In Fort Pierce and the surrounding area, there are numerous languages that are spoken. It can be difficult if you don't have an officer working that speaks that language, or if we don't have an officer that speaks that language at all. They have new body cameras with features that include language translation on the spot," Smith said. "The individual that the officer is speaking to can speak their native language. The body cam will translate it for the officer. The officer will speak, and then the body cam will translate it for the person that they're speaking with."
Smith said the department plans to establish policies governing how the new technology will be used before deploying the tools.
"We're definitely looking at policy before we roll out the use of the tools. We want to make sure that we're ahead of that," he said.
The contract has an initial five-year term, with an option to renew for another five years.
The $10,139,037.87 contract will be paid in annual installments of $1 million over 10 years. The first five years will have installments of $999,999.00. If renewed, the annual payment from the city will rise to $1,028,807.57.
Commissioner Curtis Johnson said the city's approach to public safety would remain unchanged despite financial challenges facing the city, including concerns surrounding property tax reform.
"Public safety is something we take very seriously," he said. "Although we are facing probably a challenge when it comes to our future, but public safety will not be one of those areas we're going to compromise in because we need a great safe area for people to continue to want to be here."
City documents said the department's existing cameras are at the end of their life and need to be replaced.