The Marion County Commission on Dec. 22 heard from the sheriff, who outlined problems with the county's existing body‑worn and in‑car cameras and asked the commission to encumber an initial payment to replace the system.

"We have 0 in car cameras working right now," the sheriff (Speaker 8) said, describing recurring warranty denials and repeated repairs. He said the county had narrowed vendor options to Motorola Solutions and could not afford Axon, the higher‑priced competitor. The sheriff said the full package, including cameras, installation and cloud‑based software, was priced at about $177,713; he negotiated the upfront payment down to $40,000 with four annual payments of about $34,428.33 thereafter.

Commissioner S1 and others pressed for contract language to protect the county's budget authority. Commissioner S1 said Kansas budget law requires a non‑appropriation clause, and staff indicated they would seek that language in any agreement. "As long as we can get that language in the contract ... I would be comfortable with doing it," S1 said.

Commissioner S2 moved to proceed with the acquisition and encumber the initial $40,000 pending staff review and inclusion of a non‑appropriation clause; S7 seconded and the motion passed on a voice vote.

The commission and sheriff discussed specifics of the system: a claimed five‑year warranty included in the package, a spare body camera for officers, cloud‑based automatic downloads to ensure tamper‑resistant evidence, and built‑in redaction tools for public‑records requests. The sheriff said the system can be set to capture 30–60 seconds prior to an incident and that in‑car activation will also activate body cameras.

The motion authorizes staff to move forward with contract negotiations and to encumber the initial payment for the vendor pending review; commissioners did not approve the full multi‑year payment schedule as a binding long‑term appropriation at the meeting.

Next steps: county staff will review contract terms and return with finalized language and cost details before the county commits to multi‑year payments.