Two years ago, Anchorage voters approved a tax levy to purchase new technology upgrades for the police department. Most of the advocacy around the tax increase was focused on using the money to buy body cameras for officers. But, so far, most of the money is going toward a different project on the ballot proposition.
It’s called the Anchorage Police Department’s CAD RMS upgrade.
To date, the tax levy has brought in roughly $4.8 million for technology upgrades, and roughly $2.7 million of that has gone to upgrade. It’s more than double the amount spent on body cameras: about $1.1 million
So what is the CAD RMS? CAD is an acronym for computer aided dispatch, while RMS stands for records management system, which includes paperwork related to arrests, citations and other case work.
“When you call in to 911, the dispatcher takes a call on the 911 system,” APD IT manager Josiah Jones explained. “And then that information from that call transfers into the CAD, and they fill out some more information. From the dispatchers end, that information then gets sent out to the officers in the field.”
Since last June, APD has been working with the company Hexagon to upgrade its CAD RMS system, which Jones says is old and outdated.
“It was first implemented in 1997,” he said. “And there’s been some upgrades over the years, but it’s end of life at this point.”
While the public likely won’t notice a change, Jones said, the upgrade will bring the system into compliance with federal reporting standards and incorporate now-standard technology.
“Just the capabilities of the system, it doesn’t have some things like dynamic mapping to show where our officers are in a live environment,” Jones said. “Some of that will be reflected in the new CAD.”
Jones said the new system should go live in the first quarter of next year.
In the meantime, the police department is moving forward with purchasing and implementing body cameras with the rest of the tax increase. The Anchorage Assembly is set to vote on a roughly $6.5 million contract with the company Axon to provide the cameras and related upgrades. Jones said it’s not an additional expense, and is covered by the $1.8 million the tax levy brings in annually.
“That’s the cost of body cams, in-car video and interview rooms over the next five years,” Jones said. “So the tax levy is going to be covering that. That’s an annual amount that we draw in as part of that levy.”
Once the contract is approved, APD officials say they should get an initial batch of around 30 cameras in the fall, and expect to have enough to outfit all officers with cameras by the end of next year.
Wesley Early covers Anchorage life and city politics for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at wearly@alaskapublic.org and follow him on X at @wesley_early. Read more about Wesley here.
