Supervisors have rejected a proposed $45 million contract extension between the Pima County Sheriff's Department and a police-technology company.
The Sheriff's Department asked the board to approve amending the department's current contract with Scottsdale-based Axon, a firm best known for the Taser and its body-worn cameras, by extending it five years.
The department signed a 10-year contract with the company in 2021. The proposal was to extend that contract until 2036, but county supervisors rejected by a 5-0 vote.
Extending the contract would have provided the department an additional $45 million to spend on Axon products, particularly its AI tools, including Draft One, a generative artificial intelligence (AI) software tool that can auto-generate police reports from body camera audio recordings. That would have cost about $18 million.
Sheriff Chris Nanos proposed extending the contract in order to lock in a lower annual rate for the contract, Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher said Tuesday.
The board initially discussed the proposal last month but continued the item to Tuesday to get additional information.
"Another concern, voiced by a few Supervisors, is over privacy. Axon body cameras already capture our citizens in the worst moments of their lives — often from the inside of their homes. Axon gathers and stores our evidence. Axon programs are on our county phones. Axon supplies our less lethal equipment," the Pima County Deputy Organization wrote in a letter to the board.
"Now Sheriff Nanos wants Axon to write our reports. Our public agency is rapidly becoming ensnared by a private corporation. Soon we will be so entangled with Axon that the consequences of breaking free will be too high," the union said in opposing the extension.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos says a $45 contract extension with police-technology firm Axon would have saved the county money in the long run.
Supervisor Jen Allen said her concerns existed even with the additional information, primarily due to the contract extension proposal being initiated by Axon.
"I think the reason we are considering this is at the pressure of Axon, to lock ourselves into a new contract, despite the fact that we still have five years left on this existing contract. That, in and of itself, I think could stand alone as a concern," she said.
During the board's first discussion of this contract extension in December, Allen was concerned about county data being exposed to federal agencies because Axon also has federal contracts.
Allen said she is also concerned about expansive use of AI when the technology's use in everyday life is "fairly unprecedented, when we have a federal administration that is actively and aggressively seeking access to local governments and state governments' data, and opening up access to data within areas that have previously been protected."
Steve Christy, the lone Republican on the board, said he "echoes a lot of the concerns" Allen brought up during the meeting. But he said he was especially concerned about the potential for AI to replace jobs in the department.
He also echoed the union's opposition, saying that pay raises should be more of a priority than new software.
"We're being asked to come up with another $45 million for AI, and zero percent for the deputies. I think that really needs to be looked at and I think that is a troubling issue as well," he said. "Second is a question that I keep hearing throughout our society regarding AI: what jobs will be going away with AI if we would approve this? I think that has significant factors involved as well."
Nanos, in response to Christy and the deputy union calling for pay raises as opposed to new technology, said it ultimately rests on the board to approve funding amounts for pay raises.
So if he can't get more manpower immediately, Nanos said, "why wouldn't I want a tool that could save me manhours?"
"We beta-tested (the AI software) with our own deputies and with our own corrections officers for three months ... All 20 deputies (and) all 10 corrections officers have told us in writing about how great this system is, and how much they want it," Nanos said in an interview after the board's rejection. "My frustration isn't with the board. They're asking the same questions we asked. I think my biggest frustration is that the board is, at least from what I saw (on Tuesday), seems to be fearful of technology and (that data) could get out there, or AI could cause people to lose jobs."
"Just based on what my team is telling me, the team who tested this, one comment (was) 'this saves me so much, I don't have to stay an hour overtime to do X, Y and Z.' ... He's thinking about getting home, I'm thinking about overtime and (how the software) saves me money," Nanos said.
Supervisor Andrés Cano said his vote wasn't against "the men and women in uniform" at the department, rather it was a vote "about whether we lock Pima County into a broad, long-term contract out to 2036 at a time when technology, policy and risk are changing month-by-month."
"The proposed expansion in this contract involves new tools and technologies, drones, license plate reader systems and AI software. Those tools create more data about where people are, who they are with, and what they are doing. And once that data exists, we don't fully control who can demand it," Cano said. "That puts civil liberties at-risk, and it could expose our neighbors, our families, protestors exercising their First Amendment rights, and everyday citizens who have done nothing wrong. That's the core issue for me."
