Franklin County approves Motorola body‑camera contract after sheriff warns current vendor failing
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Summary
After officials described repeated failures and lack of vendor support from the county’s current body‑camera supplier, Franklin County fiscal court approved a five‑year contract with Motorola Solutions to replace officers’ body and dash cameras and cloud storage.
Franklin County fiscal court voted Feb. 26 to approve a five‑year agreement with Motorola Solutions to replace the sheriff’s office body and dash camera system.
The move follows months of problems with the county’s existing vendor, Digital Ally, which county deputies said stopped responding to requests for parts and service. “We have 38 body cameras and extras; we are down to zero spare cameras,” Lt. Logan Curry told the court, saying the sheriff’s office could face officers working without cameras if the vendor stops serving the county. Chief Deputy Dwayne Depp said if the vendor shut down today, “all of our footage…would be lost.”
Motorola rep Kevin Glover told the court the company has worked with several Kentucky agencies and that his team is prepared to expedite video transfer if the current vendor ceases operations. The proposed deal covers 40 body cameras, 12 dash cameras and cloud storage; Motorola provided a pricing package spread as five equal annual payments. The sheriff’s office asked the court to authorize the contract and to begin the first payment so the vendor can place orders; court members approved the contract at the meeting.
County officials discussed budget timing and contingencies at length. Treasurer Amy confirmed the first payment would likely need to be recorded in the current fiscal year, even if some payments are spread over future fiscal years; Motorola indicated it would honor the quoted price for a limited period and could begin hardware deliveries in roughly seven weeks after order placement. The sheriff’s office told the court it had explored other vendors and that Motorola had offered the best combination of product, local representation and responsiveness.
The court approved the Motorola contract with no roll call of individual tallies announced in the transcript; the judge stated the motion passed. County leaders asked their attorney to document the county’s options with the current vendor and advised staff to continue pursuing a clean exit from the existing contract so the new system can be deployed without loss of stored footage.
County staff and Motorola said the new system will require time to configure and that cameras would likely arrive weeks after the contract is signed. The sheriff’s office said the new hardware and responsive local support are critical to maintaining evidence, court prosecutions and officer and public safety.
What’s next: County staff will complete contract formalities and the sheriff’s office will coordinate deployment timing and training. Motorola told the court it can defer some contract payments until July if the court needs budgeting time, but the first payment and the county’s budget timing were discussed as practical constraints.
Reported speakers and attributions come from the fiscal court transcript and are limited to people who spoke during the discussion: Lt. Logan Curry (Franklin County Sheriff’s Office), Chief Deputy Dwayne Depp (Franklin County Sheriff’s Office), Kevin Glover (Motorola Solutions), and Amy (Treasurer).
