Paulding County commissioners spent a substantial portion of their work session reviewing proposed capital purchases for public safety and fleet outfitting, including a new air-and-light truck for the fire rescue department, Motorola in-car camera systems and 150 body-worn cameras for the sheriff's office.

The county asked to authorize an air-and-light apparatus priced at $598,805.89 through an HGAC contract to allow on‑scene refilling of air cylinders and extended lighting for nighttime responses. County staff said the vendor, Williams Fire Apparatus, expects a six- to eight-month turnaround and that the vehicle would align Paulding’s capabilities with neighboring counties.

Sheriff Lindsey presented two connected items for law enforcement: a $273,500 purchase to outfit 25 patrol vehicles with integrated in‑car camera systems and a $594,082 contract with Motorola Solutions for 150 body‑worn cameras. "These body worn cameras will be on every deputy and jailer...they're going to promote transparency," Sheriff Lindsey said, adding that the body‑camera purchase was a matching grant: "So $297,000 comes from the Bureau of Justice Assistance. Once we make the purchase, they will reimburse the county half that money."

County staff and commissioners discussed costs beyond the upfront price. "When these vehicles pull up, the data wirelessly downloads onto a server," Sheriff Lindsey said, noting subscription fees and storage requirements. IT director Will Lines was named as a partner on handling data transmission and retention. "Basically, right now the sheriff's office currently holds in evidence 150 petabytes worth of data," a county staff member said, underscoring the scale of storage concerns.

Gabe, a county operations staffer referenced in the discussion, estimated provisioning time for outfitted patrol vehicles at about "About 6 months," reflecting supply-chain delays from upfitters that the county has experienced.

Funding sources mentioned in the presentation included SPLOST for car cameras and a mix of grant and general-fund money for the body cameras. The transcript records the presentations and Q&A but does not include a recorded final vote on these procurement items.

The next step cited for the body-camera purchase was implementation work and equipment rollout; staff said they expect detention and patrol units to be fully outfitted by the end of the month. The board recessed to executive session at the close of public business, and no additional on-the-record votes on these items appear in the available transcript.