Apache Junction police seek 2 surveillance cameras on trailers

By Richard Dyer
Mail | X: @RHDyer

Two mobile surveillance trailers, each with a camera and costing a total of $133,000, are to be purchased for the Apache Junction Police Department.

The city council on Dec. 19 voted unanimously as part of a consent agenda with other items to approve an agreement with Air Comm Corp. for two police mobile overt camera trailers and camera modules with interface capabilities costing $133,525.12 available through the city of Glendale cooperative contract No. C23-0225.

The equipment purchase agreement states the city desires to retain a vendor for two surveillance trailers with interface capabilities and two Avigilon H5A Multi-sensor 12mp Camera Modules.

Danny Soldana

AJPD

Each trailer has a 22-foot-tall mast, which can be stowed for transport, and is powered with solar panels, AJPD Support Services Lt. Danny Soldana said to the council at a Dec. 18 work session.

Michael Pooley

AJPD

The trailers with cameras can be deployed to catch street racers, Police Chief Michael Pooley said during the work session.

“We get complaints of street racers where cars are coming in to the city and they are peeling out and racing. This would be a perfect piece of equipment to deploy in those areas where we are getting those complaints. It does have the ability to zoom in on license plates from distances away. I’ve seen them in use. They are extremely helpful,” he said.

The police and parks departments — with the Superstition Fire and Medical District — will use the cameras at events such as the Lost Dutchman Days Rodeo and Lost Dutchman Marathon in a unified command to view what’s going on and to assign resources the quickest way possible, said Soldana, who oversees law-enforcement at Apache Junction special events.

“One of the big reasons we are looking at acquiring this technology is for the safety at our special events. As we all know, the city is growing, and with the growth our events are going to continue growing,” he said. “We’re going to be able to utilize and deploy these overt camera trailers in areas — it’s going to be a force-multiplier for the police department. It’s going to free-up resources that we can put off to other areas for traffic control or other areas of the event where they will be needed. So by having these put there, we are going to be able to see what is going on in real time.”

The cameras can be used to locate a lost child, view traffic such as around the rodeo grounds or search for suspects, Soldana said.

“(T)here is software with analytics that you can search for certain things and look for possible suspects. So different, wide array of issues that we could address and look at,” he said.

The cameras can be set up to record areas for hot-spot policing, with the images stored for up to 30 days.

“A secondary use for this mobile overt camera trailer is in hot-spot policing. As you all know, crime — we have upticks in different areas of the city — and when not being used at a special event, we can deploy these in different areas where we may have an uptick in criminal damages or burglaries. And we can put them in construction areas, residential neighborhoods, commercial property and public parks,” Soldana said.

Bryan Soller

City of Apache Junction

Councilmember Bryan Soller, who works in law enforcement, said the cameras are useful, such as to catch suspects looking for cars to burglarize.

“(F)rom somebody that has worked with these, they are a game-changer for the police. When you have areas ... in a neighborhood and you are getting a lot of vehicle burglaries in the middle of the night, you can put these up and in the middle of the night they can see cars going down the street, people jumping out of cars checking car handles. You can put them anywhere you are having high crime. Also these events,” he said at the work session.

The two police mobile overt camera trailers are to cost $118,827.84 and the two camera modules are to cost $14,697.28, Police Chief Pooley said in a memo to Mayor Chip Wilson.

“The warranty for the equipment against defective workmanship or materials is for a period of two years for the trailers and camera and a 12-month warranty on the batteries. The funding will be from the capital facilities budget and the expected lifespan for the equipment is 10 to 15 years for trailers and five years for cameras,” he wrote in the memo.

Richard H. Dyer can be reached at rdyer@iniusa.org, or on X @rhdyer. To voice your opinion on this story, connect with us at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.

Richard Dyer
Managing Editor | East Valley

rdyer@iniusa.org

Meet Richard
Richard Dyer has worked at Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA since 1987, starting his career in Apache Junction as a copy editor and being promoted over the years to work as the editor of the Mesa Independent, news services editor for the East Valley office in Apache Junction, managing editor for the East Valley office, news services editor for the East Valley office and eventually also for the newspapers at INI’s then-Chandler office, managing editor again and as a news editor covering Apache Junction/Gold Canyon and Queen Creek. He helped start the Florence Independent while the news editor covering Apache Junction and Mesa news. In January 2023, he became associate managing editor for the East Valley newspapers and in August 2023 became managing editor for the East Valley newspapers of Chandler/Tempe, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Florence, Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon, while also reporting on Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon.  

Community: Since 2009, he has worked as a volunteer to design The Blue Guitar Magazine, Blue Guitar Jr. magazine and Unstrung magazine, which are projects of The Arizona Consortium for the Arts; and since 2014, has been overseeing the art submissions. 

Education: University of Arizona with a master of arts in journalism and a bachelor of science in agricultural communication. Also continuing education at Mesa Community College in welding in a metal art sculpture class.

Random fact: Saw his first tornado on May 31, 2010, which was classified as an EF-2, as part of a stormchasing tour group.

Hobbies: He is an artist of welded-steel sculptures, selling his artwork at juried and non-juried art shows.