Manitowoc committees recommend five‑year sheriff body‑camera program with AI; cost and savings questions remain

Supervisor Hanson, a member of the Finance Committee, told the County Board on July 15 that joint Finance and Public Safety meetings produced a unanimous committee recommendation to include a five‑year body‑worn camera program with an AI transcription component in the county budget. “We’re talking about $1.5 million for the program over the five years, I believe,” Hanson said, and he urged supervisors to review packet materials and ask questions of the sheriff and the county executive.

The program presented by Sheriff Hartwick would buy cameras and a suite of services, including an AI tool to generate draft reports from recordings. Hanson said committee members were shown a one‑year AI cost that had been discounted from about $250,000 to roughly $200,000. He also said no concrete estimate was provided for how much the county would save through reduced overtime or faster report completion.

The recommendation reflected committee deliberations, not a final county‑board appropriation. Supervisor Fokalski, who reported for Public Safety, summarized department operations and said the Axon proposal had been discussed as part of that committee meeting. Fokalski reported staffing shortages, noted overtime pressure and said jail medical expenses were anticipated to exceed budget, factors supervisors said bear on overall public‑safety costs.

Sheriff Hartwick reported several operational items during committee briefings: recruitment for lieutenant and deputy sheriff positions, eight squad cars acquired under budget, employees out on leave or light duty, continuing records‑retention work, and acquisition of a mobile command post vehicle. He also said the department switched primary cellular coverage amid a local outage and is exploring storage options for impounded electric vehicles because of fire‑hazard concerns.

Supervisors discussed program scope and cost variations: Hanson cited an average annual program cost of about $289,000 in committee materials but noted other figures were presented that change the five‑year total. He encouraged colleagues to schedule briefings with staff and the sheriff’s office and said County Executive Bob Ziegenbauer had raised questions staff would collect.

The committees’ next step is to transmit the recommendation into the county budget process for consideration by the full board. No final appropriation was approved at the July 15 meeting.

Ending: County staff and committee chairs provided supervisors with packet materials and suggested one‑on‑one briefings. Hanson asked supervisors to review the materials over the next weeks and to bring questions back to the executive or committee chairs for clarification.