New Hope City Council Approves $1.8 Million in Police Technology Upgrades

The New Hope City Council approved nearly $2 million in police technology upgrades at its April 27 meeting, a significant investment that officials believe will help it to further promote accountability and transparency.

The $1.8 million, 10-year agreement with Axon Enterprise includes the purchase of new body-worn cameras, Tasers and squad cameras.

New Hope Police Chief Tim Hoyt said the purchase will help the department avoid costly fixes and be more efficient. 

“We are routinely spending funds replacing equipment, which is vitally important ensuring that the New Hope Police Department establishes a culture of transparency and accountability in order to build public trust and legitimacy,” Hoyt told council members.

Hoyt said the city first approved the purchase of body-worn cameras in 2021. Since then, the current cameras are experiencing “increased failure rates due to technical issues,” read a department memo.

“A long-term replacement plan for the cameras and tasers would be in the best interest of the department and the city,” the memo continued.

New Hope Mayor John Elder, a longtime police officer and current captain for the Robbinsdale Police Department, said Axon is the “proven leader” in body-worn cameras.

“This is a big ticket item,” said Elder. “What it would take would be for us to not have the cameras working — for a lawsuit to happen. And I will assure you we would be paying way more than that.”

The agreement would result in an increase of $102,992 for the police department’s IT allocation. City documents showed budget development options will be explored to reduce the impact to the property tax levy. 

Image of a body-worn police camera/CCX News

Police Technology with AI capabilities

The agreement with Axon would cover replacement of all items as needed and include technology updates as part of the 10-year contract. Language translation features are also part of the package.

According to Hoyt, the New Hope Police Department would receive 37 body-worn cameras, 34 Taser units and 17 squad cameras.

In addition, the new police technology has artificial intelligence capabilities, which could help write police reports.

New Hope City Council Member Brock Ray asked how the department would use AI.

“We’re kind of dipping our toe into this,” said Hoyt.

Chief Hoyt said the AI component will also be discussed at length with city attorney Stacy Woods. 

“We’ll definitely take some of those technologies that we’re going to be getting from Axon and going over with the city attorney.”

Hoyt added that if AI is used, all reports must be reviewed to ensure accuracy.

New Hope