Police to buy Axon Skydio drone and replacement body cameras under grant; resident raises data-sharing concerns

The council authorized several police-department actions tied to federal grant funding: purchase of two Axon Body 4 cameras (fully covered by a remainder in a 2024 BJA grant) and a budget amendment to record $2,500 of additional federal revenue and expenditures, plus approval to purchase an Axon Air Skydio officer-deployed drone (not to exceed $70,900) funded from a $250,000 LEO grant.

Chief Kaluzny described the body-camera replacement and the drone's operational use (officer-deployed for missing-person searches, accident-scene mapping and special-event security) and said the purchase includes a five-year replacement/training package. He asked council to approve the procurement: "So I'd be looking for a motion to approve the purchase of the Axon AirSkydio drone from Axon Enterprises in the amount not to exceed $70,900." Council approved the purchases and the budget amendment by roll call.

During public comment, John Koski warned that companies like Axon often port data to cloud services such as Amazon Web Services and suggested that third parties (he named Palantir and ICE) may have access to that cloud data; he urged the city to consider captive servers and judicial-warrant-only access controls to protect privacy. Council asked about training, the number of officers to be certified (three to four), and whether drone images could be broadcast to officers' phones; staff said the purchase did not include mobile-broadcast capability and that training and FAA Part 107 requirements were part of the procurement package.