To: Board of Supervisors
From: David O. Livingston, Sheriff-Coroner
Report Title: Axon Enterprise, Inc.
☒Recommendation of the County Administrator ☐ Recommendation of Board Committee
RECOMMENDATIONS:
APPROVE and AUTHORIZE the Sheriff-Coroner, or designee, to execute a contract amendment with Axon Enterprise, Inc. to increase the payment limit by $1,432,200 to a new payment limit of $19,767,379, for the purchase of unlimited transcription, for the period April 1, 2025 through December 31, 2032.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Approval of this request will result in up to $1,432,200 in additional contractual service expenditures over a period of more than 7 years and will be funded 100% by Measure X allocations.
BACKGROUND:
On November 29, 2022, the Board approved the execution of a contract with Axon Enterprise, Inc. in an amount not to exceed $12,503,168 for the purchase of body-worn cameras, in-car camera systems, and software for the period January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2032. This was funded by Measure X allocations.
On December 13, 2022, the Board approved the execution of a contract amendment with Axon Enterprise, Inc. to increase the payment limit by $2,854,661 to a new payment limit of $15,357,829, which added the purchase of Taser 7 Conducted Energy Weapons, equipment, and software to the original contract for the period November 1, 2022 through October 31, 2027. This was funded by Service Area P-6 revenues.
On February 6, 2024, the Board approved the execution of a contract amendment with Axon Enterprise, Inc., to increase the payment limit by $221,760 to a new payment limit of $15,579,589 for the purchase and installation of recording cameras and other related equipment, software, and cloud storage services for the period April 1, 2024 through December 31, 2032. This amendment was funded by the department’s general purpose revenue allocation.
On August 13, 2024, the Board approved the execution of a contract amendment with Axon Enterprise, Inc. to increase the payment limit by $2,755,590 to a new payment limit of $18,335,179, for the purchase of unlimited evidence storage, for the period May 1, 2024 through February 29, 2032. This was funded by Measure X allocations.
The Office of the Sheriff is requesting to switch to the unlimited transcription option from AXON Enterprise, Inc., which would increase the transcription abilities of the digital evidence being ingested with the implementation of the AXON Enterprise, Inc. Body Worn Cameras and In-Car Camera System. Currently, the application caps the amount of transcription minutes available to 80,863 minutes per calendar year. Under the current contract terms, when transcription usage exceeds the allotted amount, additional charges must be incurred by the Office of the Sheriff.
The department has dramatically increased the amount of evidence stored within the application, primarily due to the utilization of Evidence.com to handle all video and digital storage for Office of the Sheriff cases. The amount of transcription needed will only continue to increase, and switching to unlimited transcription is more cost effective and operationally necessary.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
If the Board does not approve of obtaining unlimited transcription, the Office of the Sheriff would be unable to utilize the option on the application to its full potential. By not utilizing the transcription capabilities to its full potential, the staff will be put in a position where digital evidence is triaged by priority of transcribing, or to manually transcribing evidence as needed. This is not a desirable practice and can be alleviated by this unlimited transcription solution.