High Point council approves Axon equipment purchase to expand drone-as-first-responder program

The High Point City Council on Jan. 31 approved a goods-and-services agreement with Axon Enterprises to expand the police department’s real-time crime center and to deploy a Drone-as-First-Responder (DFR) program.

Chief of Police Curtis Cheeks told the council the purchase covers equipment, services and training. He said the city identified equitable-sharing funds to cover the first year of the contract and that the remaining years would be paid from the general fund.

Council members raised questions about how drone footage and other data would be handled and released. An unidentified councilmember asked, “what's your protocol on how that's handled and released?” Chief Cheeks said the department has “a public information officer, who manages our information sharing through multiple social media platforms, deals with the media, and then we also have a crisis communication plan” for different incident levels.

Cheeks described secondary uses for the equipment beyond policing, including support for the fire department during large-scale operations, search-and-rescue missions and post-storm infrastructure checks. He said the city would own the equipment and operate it, and that the purchase includes training.

The council voted by voice to approve the item. The record shows a motion, a second and a voice vote of “Aye”; no roll-call tally was provided in the meeting record.

What’s next: the department will move forward with procurement and implementation per the contract; council members signaled interest in the public-release protocols and staff said the city’s public information officer and crisis plan will govern information sharing.