City Council voted 6-3 to approve a contract with Axon Enterprise Inc. for the Evanston Police Body Worn Camera Program Monday.
The new contract allows the Evanston Police Department to continue in compliance with the Illinois Body Worn Camera Act, which states most law enforcement officers must wear body cameras when on duty and engaged in law enforcement encounters.
EPD will pay Axon $5.8 million over seven years for body-worn cameras, fleet vehicle cameras, an upgrade to its current TASER and drone systems, and the implementation of the company’s new ‘Real-Time Crime Center,’ an AI-driven platform. The contract also allows the city to opt out at the three or six-year mark of the contract.
EPD has a long history working with Axon as equipment suppliers. According to Deputy Chief Jody Wright, they started working together in 2010, and in 2017, Evanston was one of the first Illinois municipalities to start a trial program with Axon body-worn cameras. The current five-year contract between the two entities is set to end in April 2027 and costs the city about $2.5 million.
“We need the body-worn cameras, that’s the state requirement. No question about that,” Ald. Jonathan Nieuwsma (4th) said. “I’m convinced that Axon is the way to go, for better or for worse, given their lock on the market here and the fact that various components interact with each other.”
Nieuwsma added that the $5.8 million price tag on the contract was worth it compared to alternatives reviewed at recent meetings of the Finance and Budget Committee, which he sits on.
Waiting until 2026 could increase costs to over $6 million, and waiting until the current contract expires in 2027 could increase the contract by 6-to-12% according to a memo from Police Chief Schenita Stewart.
Alds. Juan Geracaris (9th), Clare Kelly (1st) and Bobby Burns (5th) voted against the contract.
Geracaris, along with Mayor Daniel Biss, shared concerns about Axon’s data collection and use of the saved videos. Part of the contract includes the implementation of the crime center platform, an AI system that unifies various live videos and field data to give the police department a better real-time picture of critical incidents to increase coordination and efficiency.
“We train the AI, and then we deploy the AI to your devices, so your devices are the ones technically running the AI. We don’t run the AI,” Axon Senior Director of Sales Tim Kresler said in response to the concerns. “Evanston’s data remains in Evanston’s implementation.”
The city terminated a contract with Flock Safety, a surveillance technology company, in September, following an audit from the Illinois Secretary of State that found the company allowed U.S. Customs and Border Protection to access data from Illinois’ traffic cameras.
The city’s new contract with Axon also includes limits on which videos can be accessed through the Freedom of Information Act, comprehensive audit trails and timelines for when videos have to be deleted.
According to Wright’s presentation, the cameras do not have facial recognition and redact images of people who are not involved in the recorded situations. Cameras are also not recording all the time, as fleet vehicle cameras turn on when the lights are turned on, and body-worn cameras have to be manually turned on, according to Wright. As for the drones, they can not be weaponized, and any subpoenas of any footage have to be approved by the council, according to the memo.
During public comment, 2nd Ward resident Trisha Connolly said she was worried about the lack of transparency surrounding the services provided in the contract and the implications behind them. She also argued for “less, not more militarization” of EPD, claiming that the goal of the city should be to care for residents.
Wright later emphasized that the Axon technology is meant to aid EPD in providing security to residents.
“The technology is there to support police departments in fighting crime and catching bad guys and to put ourselves in a position where we have the ability to use it and to have it as an organization — because you never know when something is going to happen — and to not acquire it for public safety purposes, I think it’s irresponsible,” Wright said.
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