Tigard council hears presentation on FUSUS by Axon real-time camera network; council asks for more data and policy detail

Police leaders and an Axon representative presented a proposal for the city to consider participation in FUSUS by Axon, a platform that can aggregate live and recorded camera feeds and other data for real-time operational use, Police Chief Jamie McDonald said at the Jan. 14 meeting.

"This opportunity has me excited," McDonald told councilors, saying the system could "allow officers to...be safer when they're responding to things, and be able to be more effective doing follow-up investigations."

What FUSUS would do: City staff and Axon described the platform as a tool that can integrate computer-aided dispatch (CAD), body-worn camera and in-car video feeds, city-owned video, and permissively shared business cameras into a single interface. An Axon account executive, Andy Grapp, said the system is "technology agnostic" and can ingest many camera types; a hardware appliance — described as a compact "core" or "black box" — is typically installed at donor locations to manage feed ingestion and short-term retention.

Council concerns and clarifications Councilors asked detailed questions about privacy, data ownership, retention, cybersecurity and how the system would work in practice. Chief McDonald and Lieutenant Lee Erickson said: - Access: Only authorized police personnel with criminal-justice system information clearance would be granted access; every access is logged and auditable. - Ownership and public records: City Attorney Rahala told councilors the city does not own camera footage hosted by third parties until the department transfers footage into its evidentiary system; footage becomes city data once it is archived as evidence. - No facial recognition: Axon personnel said the system was designed without facial recognition; it can use descriptive and behavioral AI (for example, to detect a person in a particular clothing color or to notify on unusual loitering), but Axon representatives said they do not deploy facial-recognition matching in the product. - Retention: Axon representatives and police staff said short-term retention on donor hardware is generally measured in days (Axon described a typical black-box retention of two to four days, configurable by deployment); if the police capture footage as evidence it would be moved into the department's evidence system and handled under existing evidence retention rules.

Community and business outreach Chief McDonald said the department has received expressions of interest from large local property managers and retail owners, and the Chamber of Commerce provided a letter of support. Axon representatives said similar programs operate in more than 400 jurisdictions nationally.

Public comment and council direction During public comment Crystal Weston raised questions about long-term costs and privacy risks, urging a deliberative approach; she said she appreciated the chief's approach but asked the council to consider the risk that surveillance systems can be repurposed by future administrations. Councilors asked staff to gather additional documentation on retention rules, statutory limits on data sharing, cybersecurity certifications and outcome data from peer cities such as Bend. Chief McDonald said the police will not return to the council on Jan. 28 with a contract; staff will pursue additional information and present a future recommendation.

Ending: Councilors did not vote on a contract; staff will compile additional documents, peer-city results, and proposed policy language and return for further discussion.