DA and sheriff propose Evidence.com cloud workflow; commissioners ask for short pilot before multi-year contract

John Wren, chief investigator with the District Attorney's Office, and county IT and fiscal staff presented the court with a request to adopt Axon Evidence.com to streamline evidence sharing between the sheriff's office and the DA.

Wren described the current process: deputies burn body-camera and vehicle-camera video to DVDs, deliver physical media to the DA's office and often encounter damaged discs or incompatible formats that require hours of staff time to resolve. He said Evidence.com would allow the sheriff's office to upload video to a cloud platform and send secure links to the DA and defense counsel or produce copies that are readable, eliminating repeated DVD burning and failure rates.

County financial figures presented at the meeting showed a 2025 cost for the service of $16,618.36 and a projected 2026 figure of about $17,283.09; the company quoted a five-year contract total near $90,000 (figures include annual increases noted in the vendor quote). County staff and the DA said the time savings for investigators and legal assistants could pay for the service in reduced labor and USB/thumb-drive purchases used for repeated copying.

Commissioners expressed reluctance to commit to a five-year perpetual expense without a test of the system. The court asked staff to request a short proof-of-concept or a prorated short-term contract (the DA and sheriff's representatives proposed a four-month trial) and to explore cooperative purchasing (co-op) options and a revised vendor quote. The sheriff and DA agreed to return with a demo or short-term arrangement; the court placed the item on the next agenda for final action and indicated contingency funding from the county's contingency line could be used for a short proof-of-concept if needed.

There was no county vote to approve a multi-year contract during the meeting.