ODESSA, Texas — The Odessa Police Department may soon be getting their hands on some new technology.
At Tuesday's City of Odessa Work Session, OPD Police Chief Mike Gerke made a presentation to the city council asking for an amendment to their current contract with Axon.
Axon - who provides OPD with equipment such as body cameras and in-car camera systems - has recently purchased the software suite known as Fusus.
According to Gerke, OPD is interested in buying Fusus services, but it would require amending their current contract with Axon.
If OPD is able to utilize Fusus, Gerke said it would allow them to have better management over what they currently own and operate.
“It’s allowing us to bring those assets, along with others like automated license plate readers, drone video and cameras from around town," Gerke said. "It allows us to bring all those things into one location to allow us to more efficiently manage that stuff.”
With the addition of Fusus, Gerke believes that his officers out in the field would get faster real-time information, which would help them get to serious situations much quicker.
For example, the technology would determine whether or not a call regarding a break-in at a gas station would be about a person with a gun performing a stick-up or someone who took a six-pack of beer without paying.
Fusus, Gerke said, would help his officers make critical decisions much quicker.
“When the bad guy leaves the store, if we have access to those video cameras that were voluntarily given to us by the company, then we can find out if we know what that person is driving," Gerke said. "If we know what that bad guy is driving, it’s so much easier for us to stop and arrest that person and you're going to be able to get those criminals off the street quicker."
It wouldn't be the only thing Fusus could track.
"It will also be able to help track missing persons, missing children, those types of things," Gerke said. "Again, [we can] bring all those assets and all that data into one place and be able to then make a good, coherent decision on about what happens next.”
There were some questions raised by Odessa City Council about privacy concerns, but Gerke was quick to assure the council that there would be no such issues.
"The basic policy with any law enforcement information is that you cannot use it for your personal gain right or your personal use," Gerke said. "It can only be used for legitimate law enforcement purposes."
There are seven years left on the current contract, so an extra seven years would be added onto OPD's contract with Axon. It would be $90,000 for the first five years and $100,000 for the last two years.
The money would not be coming from taxpayers, but instead through donated funds.