Prescott Valley Police Department's Body Worn Camera Program

This grant application supports the Prescott Valley Police Department (PVPD) body worn camera (BWC) implementation project.  PVPD serves the Town of Prescott Valley, a medium sized municipality of 47,500 residents in Central Arizona.  The Prescott Valley metro was recently ranked 25th in the nation for growth rate between 2020-2021 (Stebbins, 2022).

With these funds and additional match funds, we will start our BWC program with 87 BWC issued to all sworn personnel who provide direct service to the community and our animal control officers who also provide direct service to the community.  The BWC will be supported by a robust software system that allows for proper impound, storage, redaction, release, and audit of BWC use per policy.

PVPD recognizes how BWC cameras can impact many aspects of our agency including several mentioned in the 21st Century Policing Report: building trust and legitimacy, policy and oversight, technology, and officer safety (Multiple, 2015).  BWC will allow us to immediately review critical incidents and complaints to ensure transparency and accountability, implement policy to carefully manage the program and provide for oversight of the project through proper staffing and monitoring, use a technology relatively new to law enforcement, and reduce officer assaults and uses of force.

PVPD has a data driven approach to measuring performance and service demands, evidenced by the focus we place on monthly reporting on officer activity, community service needs, and outcomes in the form of crime and crash rates.  This proven ability will enable us to implement a BWC program that includes multiple data measurements to examine BWC impacts: use of force, complaints, citation rate, arrest rate, plea bargaining, camera use per policy, and rate of impound of BWC footage.