Cedarburg council approves 10‑year Axon contract for tasers, cameras, drones and cloud storage

The Cedarburg Common Council on April 13 approved a 10‑year contract with Axon to consolidate multiple public‑safety technology agreements into a single, long‑term package covering taser devices, body‑worn and squad cameras, fixed/outpost cameras and license‑plate readers, drones, upgraded interview‑room hardware and cloud evidence storage. The city will make an initial payment this year, followed by annual payments described in the presentation as roughly $188,000 per year thereafter.

Chief McNerney introduced the request as the largest contract the department has presented in recent years and said the agreement addresses fragmented, overlapping contracts and near‑capacity evidence storage. “This is our biggest contract request we've had, just I've been chief,” he said, framing the package as a consolidation that will standardize equipment and workflows across the department.

Axon representative Jack Tordler described operational benefits that drove the purchase, including redaction and transcription tools that reduce staff time on Freedom of Information requests and evidence preparation, and automatic tracking of faces and license plates that limits repetitive manual redaction. He said the department’s evidence storage was about 80% full and that bundling hardware, software and storage into a 10‑year agreement produced unit discounts and longer‑term cost predictability. “When you compare it to a la carte renewals, bundling everything on one contract now gives you price predictability and savings,” he said.

Council members pressed staff and Axon on several points in a prolonged Q&A. Members flagged a discrepancy between a packet emailed to council and the public CivicsPlus packet, with different cost projections and line items; staff acknowledged multiple spreadsheet versions were circulated and said they would post the most current version for public access. Several council members questioned the projected magnitude of future a la‑carte price increases and sought a clearer apples‑to‑apples comparison that separates added devices and new features from inflationary effects.

Members also asked about the contract’s 10‑year term and technology obsolescence. Axon said 10 years is the company’s longest standard term and that the agreement includes scheduled equipment refreshes and on‑site training; Axon and police staff said some optional AI modules could be dropped if the city chose not to fund or use them. Axon representatives said certain modules could be removed if they did not deliver expected value and that on‑site training and installation would be provided.

A motion to approve signing the Axon contract was moved, seconded and adopted on a voice vote. Mayor Patricia and council members thanked staff and the vendor for reducing the original proposal and for the work to reconcile figures. The council recorded no formal roll‑call objections during the voice vote.

Next steps: staff will finalize contract documents and post the updated cost spreadsheet and scope details to the public packet; the council moved to implement the contract as approved.