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Beresford police ask council to sign five-year Axon contract with VR training; council approves
Summary
The Beresford Police Department presented a five-year contract with Axon for tasers, digital evidence management and virtual-reality use-of-force training, and the council authorized the chief to sign the contract to secure 2026 pricing.
A police-department representative told the Beresford City Council the department needs to replace aging taser equipment and upgrade training and evidence-management tools and recommended a five-year contract with Axon.
The representative said existing tasers are out of production and service for replacement parts is no longer available. The proposed package includes new tasers with a different cartridge design, an annual supply of batteries and training cartridges, virtual-reality (VR) de-escalation and use-of-force training hardware and software, and backend digital evidence services. The representative said the department had three taser deployments this year that were ineffective and that the new system's updated cartridges and improved accuracy could have altered those outcomes in training demos.
Council members asked about cost and payment terms. The representative described the contract as a five-year term with an annual payment option; amounts mentioned during discussion included roughly $6,006.96 per year in one exchange and $6,900 per year in another. A motion to authorize signature of a five-year Axon contract was made and approved; the representative said a December deadline applied for 2026 pricing.
The representative emphasized the training and data-management benefits: VR headsets that let officers practice realistic scenarios and an evidence backend that logs deployments, trigger counts and related data for training and legal review. Sergeant Bullis was named as the department trainer who would use the instructor tablet to adjust scenarios.
Ending
Council members approved authorization for the police department to sign the five-year contract. The council did not specify a funding source in the discussion; the police representative said the purchase would be added to the 2026 budget.
