Digital Ally becomes the main sponsor of pro golf event at LionsGate

Digital Ally Inc., a Lenexa-based company that has seen a surge in business recently for its law enforcement surveillance gear, has added its first major sports event sponsorship.

The company has signed a five-year agreement to become the new title sponsor of the Web.com Tour event to be held in August at the Nicklaus Golf Club at LionsGate in Overland Park.

The announcement was made Friday by the PGA Tour and the Kansas City Crusaders, the host organization of the event at LionsGate. Under the agreement, the Midwest Classic PGA tournament has been officially renamed the Digital Ally Open. Financial terms of the sponsorship, scheduled to run through 2019, were not disclosed.

The Web.com Tour is the developmental tour for the PGA.

The 2015 Digital Ally Open will be played Aug. 6-9, the highlight of a week of events that begins Aug. 3. A pro-am event is scheduled for Aug. 5. This will mark the sixth time Web.com has played a tournament at LionsGate.

“This Web.com Tour event has always been fantastic for our community, and when presented with the opportunity, we knew it would be a perfect fit,” Stan Ross, Digital Ally’s chief executive officer, said in a prepared statement.

The company said it sees its first sponsorship of a major sporting event as an opportunity to introduce and promote its products.

Digital Ally’s sponsorship will benefit four charitable organizations: Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City; the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation; the Surviving Spouse and Family Endowment Fund, or SAFE; and Concerns of Police Survivors, or COPS.

The Kansas City Crusaders, which helps promote professional golf in the Kansas City area, has been involved in the tournament since 2011. Over the last four years, the event has raised more than $450,000 for charities, the Crusaders said.

Digital Ally, based at 9705 Loiret Blvd., has about 110 employees. The publicly traded technology company has become an innovative force in the development of body and dashboard cameras used increasingly by police departments, including several in the Kansas City area.

Its business has spiked sharply in the months since the police shooting last summer of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.

This story was originally published April 3, 2015 at 10:04 AM with the headline "Digital Ally becomes the main sponsor of pro golf event at LionsGate."