After the August police shooting of Jacob Blake in nearby Kenosha, Wisconsin, the Green Bay Packers met as a team to discuss how they could make an impact, going beyond tweets to create a tangible difference.
On Wednesday, the franchise announced it has given $757,000 to the city of Green Bay to purchase police body cameras as well as de-escalation tools and training from Axon, a public safety technology company.
“We took immediate action as a leadership council, as a team, just trying to figure out what’s the most impactful way to make a difference,” wide receiver Davante Adams said in a team-issued video. “Obviously tweeting and all those type of things are a bunch of different actions you can do to bring light to this topic. But it was something we wanted to make sure we did the right way, and we found something that was going to be really impactful.”
The #Packers have teamed with the city of Green Bay to support the Green Bay Police Department’s purchase of public safety technology, which includes body cameras, that will greatly enhance its everyday operations in protecting the community.
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) December 16, 2020
📰: https://t.co/9PnMgL0yU2 pic.twitter.com/eyiGWXb4X4
The city attempted to buy body cameras “five or six years ago,” Green Bay Police Chief Andrew Smith said in the video. The price at that time was too expensive, though. With the Packers’ involvement now, the cost to the city will be around $1.95 million, according to a team release.
“Having the Packers partner with us is really the game-changer in and of itself,” Smith said, “because I don’t think this camera system and this camera program would be possible without the help of the Packers.”
The video program includes a Replay Coaching system, allowing officers and supervisors to go back and watch how they handled a call and learn how to improve, if needed. The five-year deal with Axon will also include tasers and cameras inside police cars.
“Those body cams can obviously tell an entire story,” Adams said. “There’s been a lot of questionable things that have happened, a lot of things caught on camera. It just makes you wonder about things that aren’t caught on camera, as it pertains to both sides of the equation. So we just wanted to make sure we did something like that, something that was measurable. I feel like it’s going to turn out to be something that’s really good.”
• Andy Kostka can be reached at akostka@washingtontimes.com.
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