Crescent City Mayor Ray Altman and Councilor Jason Greenough were absent. Among the items discussed at Monday’s Crescent City Council meeting: Axon body cameras: Crescent City renewed a five-year agreement with Axon that will equip its police officers with body cameras and Tasers as well as provide evidence storage. The Council’s decision included equipping three additional officers with body cameras. This will include two reserve officer positions as well as a community service officer, Crescent City Police Chief Richard Griffin said. The contract’s total cost will be just under $300,000 with the funding coming from Measure S. The reserve officer program would consist of unpaid volunteers, Griffin stated in his staff report. They will be armed and sworn in. The community service officer would be part-time and unarmed. Griffin said both programs still need the City Council’s approval. There are 15 full-time sworn officers within CCPD including the chief. Crescent City began contracting with Axon in 2021, according to Griffin, who said he was one of the first officers in Del Norte County to wear a body camera. The department had previously been using Motorola body cameras, which routinely became unattached from the officer’s vests during minor struggles with suspects. Motorola body cameras also had poor battery life and often wouldn’t last through a 12-hour shift. According to Griffin, he’s often left his Axon body camera on at night following a shift and still had 10 percent battery power left over the following morning. The Axon system also comes with redaction software, though Griffin said CCPD hasn’t had to use it yet. The camera will activate when an officer draws his weapon, if they get into a “hard crash or a hard smack” or if their vehicle travels at speeds 80 mph or greater, Griffin said. “There’s also a response feature,” the police chief said. “If an officer is on a critical incident, such as the officer-involved shooting earlier this year, I can log onto my phone and I can start monitoring that.” Griffin said he can monitor what his officers are doing using their Axon body cameras, enabling him to call for additional resources. The Del Norte County District Attorney will also have her own login to review and download CCPD body camera footage. Military equipment policy: Crescent City Police Chief Richard Griffin reiterated that the military equipment policy he was bringing before the public for scrutiny on Monday covers what the State of California determines to be military equipment. Griffin said he’s looking to add three AR15s to his department’s cadre of specialized firearms the state classifies as military equipment. The department has four older Colt AR-15s and six new Daniel Defense AR-15s. Griffin said his department is still working on obtaining a drone. “This is not 1033 equipment, which is actual military equipment,” he said, referring to a U.S. Department of Defense program that offered excess military property to local law enforcement agencies. “We don’t have any MRAPs [Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles] or anything like that. This is something we have to do. It’s required of everybody in the state.” According to Griffin, Crescent City’s military equipment policy, which was established about three years ago, also includes the ammunition for his department’s specialized firearms as well as its pepperball and teargas launchers and munitions. Griffin’s report and updated policy drew comment from two individuals, neither of whom gave their names. One asked the police chief for a list of the military equipment the policy covers, while the other asked the City Council to consider drafting an ordinance for how the equipment should be used. “It’s nice to see proper regulations so we can have proper law enforcement,” he said. The Crescent City Council approved the CCPD military equipment policy in October 2022. The city’s policy complies with California Assembly Bill 481, which was signed into law in 2021. Wastewater Treatment Plant Biological Survey: Crescent City councilors approved a contract with a local consultant to conduct a biological study of the wastewater treatment plant’s outfall area. Galea Biological Consulting has already conducted a sampling of area around the sewage plant outfall as well as at Preston Island, according to City Manager Eric Wier. The consultant will conduct a second sampling in October. The goal of the report is to compare the mass of invertebrates and vegetation at the two areas, looking for extreme biological growth or a lack of growth, before submitting a report to the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board in January. The Water Quality Control Board issued a new permit to Crescent City to discharge 1.86 million gallons of treated wastewater into the ocean per day. The biological survey is a requirement of that permit. The City Council on Monday approved a total project cost of $15,000, which includes a $12,656.25 proposal with Galea Biological Consulting. Since half of the work has already been finished and the other half will be conducted during the 2025-26 fiscal year, Wier asked the Council to approve amending the city’s sewer budget to cover the expense.