Tuolumne County Probation | Body cameras
A county committee approved six Axon body cameras for the Probation Department in April 2026, paid for out of state realignment money. We found no Board of Supervisors item for the purchase.
At a glance
How it happened
- Context
The committee's published online record begins
The county's meeting portal holds Community Corrections Partnership agendas from 16 April 2025 onward. We could not find agendas or minutes for the committee from before that date published online. [2]
- Decision
The committee approves six body cameras in the Probation budget
Adopting the department's budget for 2026/27, the committee revises the body camera line from $50,000 to $42,030 on the strength of a new quote. The Chief Probation Officer moves the budget as modified, the District Attorney seconds, and it passes with no objections or abstentions. The same budget carries lines for the department's GPS electronic monitoring program. [1]
- Context
A Sheriff's proposal cites cameras already installed at the justice campus
In the same meeting packet, a Sheriff's Office proposal to bring reentry services in house lists "existing camera infrastructure already installed" among the advantages of a site next to the detention center. [1]
On 22 April 2026 the Community Corrections Partnership’s executive committee met to adopt its budget for the coming year. The committee allocates the state realignment money that pays for county probation work; the minutes list the Chief Probation Officer, the Sheriff, and the District Attorney among those present.[1]
Inside that budget is a line for six Axon body cameras for the Probation Department. During the meeting the figure was revised from $50,000 to $42,030 on the strength of a new quote. The Chief Probation Officer moved the budget as modified, the District Attorney seconded, and it passed with no objections or abstentions. The same budget carries lines for the department’s GPS electronic monitoring program.[1]
This is the county’s second body-camera deployment. The first, for the Sheriff’s Office in 2022, came to the Board of Supervisors as an agreement worth up to $572,718.[3] For this one we found no Board item in the agendas and packets we reviewed.[4]
The county’s meeting portal holds the committee’s agendas from April 2025 onward, and we could not find earlier ones published anywhere online.[2] A resident wanting to know what else this committee has bought over the years would have to ask for the records.
Questions
- Who approved the Probation body cameras?
- The Community Corrections Partnership, a county committee. Its executive committee meeting of 22 April 2026 approved the department's budget, including the cameras; the minutes list the Chief Probation Officer, the Sheriff, and the District Attorney among those present. [1]
- Did the Board of Supervisors vote on it?
- We found no Board item for this purchase in the agendas and packets we reviewed. The county's earlier body-camera purchase, for the Sheriff's Office in 2022, did go to the Board. [4] [3]
- What will they cost?
- About $42,030 for six cameras, from state realignment funds. The figure was revised down from $50,000 during the meeting on the strength of a new quote. [1]
What we do not know
- What policy governs Probation's use of the cameras and the footage they record?
- How long is footage kept, and who can view it?
- Where are the committee's records from before April 2025?
What you can do
Show up
Systems like this one are approved by boards, councils and committees that meet in public. We have confirmed where each of them meets in Tuolumne County and how public comment works there.
How to show up in Tuolumne County →Protect yourself
Practical steps to shrink your personal data trail. Our guides publish at launch; until then, EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense is the best starting point.
Surveillance Self-Defense →Sources
- 1. Community Corrections Partnership, minutes of April 22, 2026 (finalized documents in the May 14, 2026 meeting file) · Meeting record · · accessed · archived copy
- 2. Tuolumne County meeting portal · Meeting record · accessed · archived copy
- 3. Board of Supervisors minutes, meeting of February 8, 2022 (Sheriff's Axon agreement) · Meeting record · · accessed
- 4. Board of Supervisors agenda and minutes archive · Meeting record · accessed · archived copy
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