College Place renews five‑year Axon lease for body cameras and Tasers; council discusses data storage and public‑records access

The College Place City Council approved a five‑year contract renewal with Axon for body-worn cameras and Tasers on Sept. 9. Staff quoted the five‑year cost at $341,805 and said the contract includes the company’s current Taser 10 devices and cloud storage for body camera footage.

Chief Tamara described the technical and disclosure arrangements for Axon footage: "The Axon Axon body cameras are uploaded into the cloud. We have access to those are ours, and we've those are open to public disclosure. We've always known that, and we we actually have a part time clerk just to, deal with any Axon body camera, request we get. 02/2024, we had 24 axon body, requests through public disclosure, and the year before that, we had 6." The chief also said officers have access to their own footage, and that staff and designated clerks manage public‑disclosure requests.

Council members raised questions about vendor selection, cost increases and data security. Staff said other vendors exist but that Tasers still require Axon and that the department has five years of case history in Axon, making transition costly. The chief described multifactor authentication and said the cloud storage is on Axon servers; staff said city access is immediate and the city considers those records subject to public disclosure unless an exemption applies.

Councilmember Espinosa asked about alternatives and the price increase. The chief said the city sought a fiscally responsible package within Axon’s offerings and selected a lower‑cost option than some other multi‑year packages discussion had shown. Councilmember Williams asked about who can access footage; staff said other agencies can request access and that the department generally grants investigatory access when appropriate.

Councilmember discussion also revisited the city’s prior questions about Flock license‑plate camera records. City legal staff said their position remains that those records should be produced in response to public‑records requests unless a court or legislature provides an exemption; legal review is still ongoing and the topic will be discussed at the WASAMA conference in mid‑October.

A motion to approve the five‑year Axon contract renewal and authorize the financial director to sign passed by voice vote.

Provenance: The Axon contract discussion starts at 00:28:20 and continues through the public‑records exchange recorded at 00:31:48; the motion and vote are recorded at 00:33:08. Chief Tamara’s public‑disclosure counts (24 requests in 2024; 6 in 2023) are recorded at 00:33:28–00:34:10.