Glendale Police receive grants for body cameras, firearms tracking
Sep 24, 2015, 5:09 PM
PHOENIX — The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced two federal grants would be awarded to the Glendale Police Department this week.
The first grant of $449,000 will supply 300 body cameras for all of the city’s patrol and uniformed officers.
“Now that we have the money, we will be able to move forward and we’re hoping to purchase all 300 cameras by the end of the calendar year,” Sgt. David Vidaure said.
Vidaure said the cameras will be a big step as the department strives to adopt the best law enforcement practices in the nation.
“Part of that is using the latest technology, and in this case that is body cameras,” he said. “Providing more insight into what police officers do, what our officers see on the street and be able to provide transparency and accountability to the public and to ourselves.”
The other grant is for $85,000 and will fund firearms tracking technology.
“These detectives specialize in the tracking and tracing of firearms and crimes related to guns,” Vidaure said. “Whether it was just shots being fired into the air, like a Shannon’s Law violation, all the way through homicide.”
The grant also helps with teaching prevention and gun violence protection in grade and high schools, he said.
