The smallest of the five categories in Tucson’s Prop. 414 — Technology Investments — only has three police-related things it would pay for if voters approve a 10-year increase in the city’s sales tax rate: Revamping the air support unit; expanding the the body-worm camera program; and investing in technology for its communications department.
It accounts for about 12% of the spending from the $800 million Prop. 414 is expected to raise if city voters agree to add a half-cent to the Tucson’s current 8.7% sales tax for the next decade.
The standout item in the technology investments category, which would get about $10 million a year in funding, is nearly $17 million for updating the police department’s air support unit, which currently consists of three helicopters.
TPD says it would use Prop. 414 funds to replace one of its helicopters with a new model and another with a plane. It also would pay for parts for the remaining helicopter, including an engine and blades.
It’s a big sticking point for the No Prop. 414 Tucson coalition. It calls the air support investment “a dangerous waste” of taxpayer money, fearing it could be used to surveil activists or protestors, as well as assisting ICE in “identifying and apprehending migrants or event our immigrant neighbors.”
Police Chief Chad Kasmar pushed back hard on claims proposition money would be used to usher in a “surveillance state.”
“To be clear, our department has historically had three aircraft, and at one point had four — three helicopters and a plane — and that was purchased through (federal Operation Stonegarden) dollars,” he said. “Ultimately, the requirements for that plane were not in-line with city expectations and community expectations, so that was given back to the federal government.”
The investment in TPD’s air unit is needed because its helicopters are 15 to 20 years old, and parts to replacing their “aging tools” are becoming difficult to obtain, Kasmar said.
“I’m not asking for a $16 million aircraft. I’m asking for $16 million over a 10-year period to replace two aging helicopters with a new plane and a new helicopter, and then spend about a half-a-million dollars a year on required fuel costs” and replacing parts when needed, Kasmar said.
Police helicopters and fixed-winged planes serve very different roles in law enforcement, he said.
“The helicopter, as a resource, is made for you to hear it . . . so if somebody’s fleeing from us, they hear the helicopter, and then they hunker down and we deploy tactics to try to find that person,” Kasmar said. “A plane flies anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 feet, and uses technology to lock-in on a vehicle or lock-in on a person, where we can safely follow that person, for hours if we need to, until they land at a location that’s safe for us to do a detention, or serve a search warrant.”
Tucson police counting on Prop. 414 for new helicopter, plane
Prop. 414 could help the Tucson Police department buy a new helicopter, a plane and parts for a second helicopter. The department currently has three aging helicopters.
He said using aircraft is safer the police pursuits on street surfaces.
The technology investment category also calls for about $4 million per year to be spent on the management and processing of data from the department’s body-worm camera program.
Body cameras not only help keep officers accountable, they also improve transparency “externally and internally,” said Darrell Hussman, president of the Tucson Police Officers Association union.
“We want to have that transparency, and body cams very much help us to do that, but then also (they help) to have a greater understanding of the situation. If the community just gets the bullet points from an incident, it’s easy to think one way or the other,” Hussman said. “But with body cam, it really gives the opportunity to see the whole picture, the good and bad, and give a clear picture of what’s going on.”
Body-camera footage has been effective when it comes to instances of police brutality and misconduct, said April Putney, who represents the No Prop. 414 Tucson coalition. But Putney said she worries about the cameras being paired with other technology to be used for surveillance.
“There is a question, whether or not the net benefit is good, especially considering moving into eras of more technology use in-terms of the possibility of AI facial recognition and other technologies that can be paired with body-worn camera footage,” she said. “Body cameras are always talked about in-terms of policy accountability, but they are also tools that the police can use in their ‘surveillance tool belt’ to target specific people in the community.”
Another $4 million would be used to invest in technology updates for the city’s Public Safety Communications Department. The city says there currently is no dedicated funding to support technology nor replace it once it becomes outdated. It would be used for things like its computer-aided dispatch and portable radio systems.
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