Council approves five‑year Axon bundle including body‑worn cameras, evidence storage and AI-assisted draft reports
Get AI-powered insights, summaries, and transcripts
Subscribe
Summary
El Mirage approved a five‑year consolidated contract with Axon Enterprises to cover body‑worn cameras, TASERs, evidence storage and a new AI 'Draft1' report‑generation tool; year‑one cost quoted at $389,903.65 and five‑year total at $1,949,183.85.
The El Mirage Common Council on July 1 approved a five‑year contract bundle with Axon Enterprises for body‑worn cameras, TASER devices, evidence storage (evidence.com), drone services (Axon Air), interview‑room software and a new AI‑assisted report tool (Axon Draft1).
Police staff explained that El Mirage has used Axon equipment for many years and that Axon’s new consolidated quote would replace multiple staggered contracts with a single bundled agreement, simplifying renewals and invoicing. Chief Marzocca said the year‑one cost is $389,903.65 and the five‑year total is $1,949,183.85; staff also noted Axon reported a long‑term savings when products and services are bundled.
The council also discussed a 30‑day field trial of Axon Draft1, an AI product that generates draft incident reports using body‑worn camera audio. Staff said 29 officers tested Draft1 during the trial, producing 408 draft reports and reporting a 124‑hour aggregate time savings in report writing; officers are required to review and edit any AI‑generated report before submission. The chief and deputies said the tool standardizes reports and can return officers to patrol duty sooner after incidents.
Councilmember discussion covered ownership and maintenance (staff said devices would be covered under Axon’s warranty and trade‑in program), unit counts (staff cited roughly 73 units in the fleet) and data storage. One council member recorded a nay but the motion carried.
Why it matters: The contract covers core officer technology and evidence-handling systems widely used in modern policing; the addition of AI-assisted draft reports changes a core reporting workflow and raises questions about review, accuracy and records retention.
Next steps: Staff will finalize contract execution and schedule device rollouts and trainings; officers will continue to validate Draft1 outputs and supervisors will confirm final report approval processes.