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Leavenworth approves five‑year Axon camera agreement; first‑year allocation $177,222
Summary
The Leavenworth City Commission approved a master services and purchase agreement with Axon Enterprises to replace the city’s in‑car, body‑worn and interview‑room camera system after officials said the current vendor lost evidence-grade video. The five‑year deal carries a first‑year budget allocation of $177,222.35.
The Leavenworth City Commission on Oct. 14 approved a master services and purchase agreement with Axon Enterprises Inc. to replace the city police department’s in‑car, body‑worn and interview‑room camera system, with a first‑year allocation of $177,222.35 in the 2026 budget.
Police officials and staff said the replacement is intended to resolve recurring evidence‑loss problems with the department’s current vendor and to unify video capture, storage and case‑management tools. Chief Kitchens told commissioners that the existing system has “not been functioning effectively” and that staff “have lost confidence in them.”
“We’ve had several significant events in which we’ve lost video data and that we have not been able to recover,” Chief Kitchens said during the presentation. “Coban cannot provide us an explanation for why that’s happened.”
Deputy Chief Major Nick Ademus, finance director Roberta Vayer and Brandon Jones, a representative from Axon, attended the meeting and answered technical and contracting questions. Staff said the proposed agreement includes replacement hardware (24 in‑car cameras and 50 body‑worn cameras plus interview‑room cameras), software licensing, cloud storage, and third‑party video support. The total quoted cost across the five‑year term in the staff presentation was $805,556.15; the commission allocated $177,222.35 for 2026 and noted later‑year payments would be subject to annual appropriation.
City staff described a multi‑vendor evaluation that reviewed Axon, Motorola Solutions/WatchGuard, Getac, and WatchGuard among others. Officials cited local agencies’ experience with Axon and said the company’s system had not produced instances of unrecoverable video for agencies they contacted. The presentation highlighted features the department said were useful now or in the future, including a community‑upload link for civilian video, integrated storage for car/body/interview cameras, and optional future tools such as automated transcription/draft report generation and language translation.
City attorney Mr. Waters worked with Axon on an addendum to the company’s standard master purchase agreement; Waters said the addendum adds Kansas statutory language and a non‑appropriation provision so the city is not contractually bound to future annual appropriations. Waters said the master agreement will be attached as an exhibit rather than left as a reference to an online template.
Commissioners voted to approve the master services and purchase agreement with Axon. The motion passed on a roll call vote.
Staff said the department will implement the basic package now and may add optional features later if funded. Officials also said the agreement includes standard exit provisions that permit the city to discontinue the service in future years if necessary.
