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New Castle County weighs Axon technology package and drone-first-responder program amid funding and privacy questions
Summary
New Castle County public safety officials presented a plan to build a Real Time Information Center and a 24-drone "drone-first-responder" network with Axon technology. Officials said the phased contract reduces up-front cost, but council members raised questions about long-term funding, data release policy and operational details.
New Castle County's Public Safety Committee heard a detailed presentation on Dec. 9 about a proposed technology package with Axon that would add a Real Time Information Center (RTIC), live-integrated body- and dash-cam feeds, language-translation-enabled bodycams and a Drone-First-Responder (DFR) network intended to put drones on scene before patrol units.
The presentation by Colonel James Leonard and Lieutenant Cumberbatch, the county's technology executive officer, described how Axon FUSIS would aggregate live video, device telemetry and Prepare 911/Live 911 call monitoring to give officers and supervisors a single operational view. "FUSIS is what brings everything together," Cumberbatch said, adding it would allow the county to see live body-worn camera feeds, dash-cam footage and mapped field-unit locations in real time.
Why it matters: County officials said the package is designed to increase officer and public safety, reduce response times and allow the county to handle low-priority calls without dispatching patrol units. Cumberbatch described a three-week…
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