Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Surveillance Tech topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Residents urge Longmont to consider public vote on police-technology contracts, cite Axon facial-recognition testing
Summary
Public commenters raised privacy and surveillance concerns about police-technology vendor Axon and urged the city to put camera purchases on the ballot; speakers cited company acquisitions, facial-recognition tests and the need for alternatives to officer responses.
During public invited to be heard, several residents urged caution about municipal adoption of advanced surveillance systems and asked the council to bring decisions to voters. David Hodges described Axon's evolution from Taser-maker to a provider of body cameras, cloud storage and other policing tools and said the company's recent facial-recognition testing was troubling.
"In 2019, Axon promised no facial recognition, but yet in 2025 started facial recognition testing," David Hodges said, arguing that one vendor controlling multiple stages of the law-enforcement workflow raises privacy and legal concerns.
Penny Hodges and Meg Thornberry of Visible Government League urged the council to prioritize privacy protections and consider non-police alternatives for some crisis responses; Thornberry recommended the STAR program model, which dispatches non-police crisis responders to low-risk calls and has reduced officer involvement in Denver.
Councilmembers acknowledged the concerns and said they would consider public input while staff develops procurement and ordinance language. No formal motion on procurement or camera adoption was taken at this meeting.
