CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – The Cedar Rapids Police Department will create a real-time operations center after City Council approved a $14 million investment in new technology and equipment for the department.
Police Chief David Dostal said police departments typically lag behind in keeping up with advancing technology. He said the money will help the department keep up.
The money will be used to pay for a 10-year contract for a package from Axon.
The package includes upgrades to body cameras, squad car cameras, drones and more.
The Police Department said drones will not be used for surveillance, but for faster responses to incidents.
Body cameras will also have live-feed and language translation capabilities.
One City Council member said she wanted to proceed with caution with a cloud-based system. She pointed to issues with the department’s Flock security camera security.
“It’s just really important that we vet this a little bit better than tools that we’ve recently gotten,” she said.
“We need to prevent what we missed with the cameras that went up where people were able to get into them before we discovered that vulnerability,” she said.
The department said no one outside of CRPD will have access to any part of the system unless given permission, and that the system is completely auditable.
The system will also be used for other city departments, including the fire department and Animal Care and Control.
Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.
Leave a Reply