How Campbell PD improved reporting efficiency with Axon Records

A modern department with high expectations for technology

Located in California’s South Bay, the Campbell Police Department serves a community where expectations around service, transparency, and efficiency are high. For Captain Ian White, those expectations extend internally as well, especially when it comes to the technology officers rely on every day.

The Campbell Police Department employs approximately 70 full-time staff members, including both sworn officers and non-sworn personnel. The agency is responsible for protecting and serving a population of over 40,000 full-time residents plus many other members of the surrounding Silicon Valley area.

In 2023, Campbell PD migrated to Axon Records for their RMS solution.

Searching for a Partner: Why Campbell PD began looking for a new RMS

The Campbell PD migrated to an RMS solution in 2017, so when they switched to Axon Records it was not because their previous RMS was outdated. They moved because it wasn’t meeting their needs or working the way officers needed it to.

The department had also learned firsthand what it meant to deploy a major system without ongoing support. Captain White explained, “We got training from our previous vendor and then the product got deployed and it was kind of like, ‘here you go, you’re on your own.’”

That experience clarified two non-negotiables for the next RMS:

1. Systems must work together, without silos or duplicate data.

2. The vendor relationship matters, especially during deployment and beyond.

Choosing Axon Records: One connected ecosystem

By the time Campbell PD began evaluating Axon Records, they were already using other Axon products, including Axon Evidence, Axon Respond, and Axon Standards. What stood out wasn’t just the RMS itself, but how everything fit together.

“We learned a lot of lessons as early technology adopters—that you want all of your systems to talk to each other,” Captain White said.

With Axon Records, reports, body-worn camera footage, and incident data could all live in one connected ecosystem. That integration had immediate implications for data quality and officer efficiency.

“It was really about how do we make our people more efficient,” he explained. “Having everything available in one place increases efficiencies.”

One other area where Campbell PD saw immediate value was data integrity and consistency.

“At one point in our old master name index, we had one person who was in there 50 different times,” White said. “The new system has really helped us clean up all that information to make sure that whatever the officer is getting is accurate.”

Deployment done differently: Hands-on support from day one

When Campbell PD went live with Axon Records in 2023, Captain White was closely involved in the deployment, and the difference was clear immediately.

“We had a full deployment team of Axon staff on site, working both shifts, day and night, for two weeks,” he said.
That level of support ensured the transition happened without disruption to daily operations.

“When we cut over to Axon Records, it really went without a hitch,” White said. “We didn’t lose any data, and officers were able to submit reports.”

Beyond technical success, the deployment focused on the end user. “They really helped to educate [officers] on how to use the product even more from the initial training transition,” he added. “It’s just a testament to the level of customer support that we get from Axon.”

Streamlined Reporting led to more Grant Funding

For Campbell Police Department’s Records team, Axon Records has transformed what was once a manual, time-consuming process into a faster and more reliable way to support grant funding. According to Records Clerk Joanna Ho, applying for grants previously required staff to “hand count everything,” a process she described as both inefficient and prone to error. “For grants we need to supply a lot of statistics,” Ho explained. “Before we’d have to hand count everything, which is very time consuming.”

With Axon Records, that process is now driven by built-in dashboards that surface the data the department needs, when it needs it. “Axon has put together a lot of dashboards for us,” Ho said. “We have an arrest dashboard, we have a crime dashboard. It’s just been a lot easier to collect all that data for grant reporting purposes.”

Beyond saving time, the dashboards have improved confidence in the data itself. “I feel like there’s less errors as well with hand counting,” she added. “With dashboards like this, it’s more efficient and transparent.” That efficiency has had a measurable operational impact, with the team submitting 5x the number of grants they did before: “Before we were only submitting one or two grants at a time, and now it’s almost 10,” Ho said. “Because of this, we’re able to bring in more money for the department.”

From reports to prosecution: A cleaner path to the DA’s office

With Axon Records connected directly to Axon Evidence, Campbell PD streamlined how cases move beyond the initial report. “We’re not having to jump to five different places to find everything,” Captain White said. “It makes it easier for everyone down the pipeline of that initial report.”

That includes the District Attorney’s office, where complete, well-organized digital case files matter.

“It makes it easier for us to get those cases out to the DA’s office,” he explained, “to make sure all the digital evidence is in one place associated to that case.”

For officers, that means less administrative friction and fewer opportunities for error or rework. For the community, this means that cases get reviewed and closed at a faster rate.

Staying on the cutting edge: A platform that evolves with its users

Since going live, Campbell PD has watched Axon Records continue to evolve and has played an active role in shaping that evolution. “The end user does have a lot of ability to provide feedback,” White said. “We see that input come back in features that we’ve asked for.”

One example is improved CAD data flowing directly into reports, reducing manual entry and saving time. “Information that’s already there, removing some of that data entry lift,” he said. “Just creating more efficiencies.”

Campbell PD has also begun using Draft One to drive even more efficiencies around the report writing process. According to Police Chief Gary Berg, officers who use Draft One have reduced their report writing time by 50%. Draft One works natively in both Axon Evidence and Axon Records.

For Campbell PD, the cloud-based model was a strategic decision, especially given the realities of government procurement and the speed at which technology evolves today. “We felt very comfortable when we entered into a 10-year contract,” White said. Because of the cloud model, Campbell knew they “were going to have the best version of whatever Axon Records was throughout that contract.”

The result: More time where it matters most

When asked to summarize the biggest impact of Axon Records in a single sentence, Captain White didn’t hesitate.
“I would describe it as efficiencies,” he said. “It’s freed up our people to be more productive, and at the end of the day, our goal is to get officers back out into the street and in the community, and Axon Records is helping us do that.”

For Campbell Police Department, Axon Records isn’t just a records management system, it’s a tool that supports better data, smoother workflows, and more time focused on serving the public.

Want to see how Campbell is leveraging the rest of the Axon Ecosystem to serve their community? Check out this case study and video >