Franklin County Sheriff | Body cameras and Tasers
The Board signed a contract with Axon for the Sheriff's body cameras and Tasers in June 2025. The minutes record the vote and nothing else: no price, no term, no number of cameras.
At a glance
- Who approved it
- The Board of County Commissioners, unanimously [1]
- Price
- No figure appears in the minutes or anywhere else in the county record [1]
- How many cameras
- Not stated [1]
- Contract term
- Not stated [1]
- How long footage is kept
- Not stated in any county record we read [1]
- A related subscription
- Shared with two neighboring counties [2]
How it happened
- Context
The prosecutor's budget line
Presenting his budget for the year beginning in October, the Prosecuting Attorney asks the Board for a new line item for a subscription to Axon to process discovery, and says the company is willing to split the fee with the two surrounding counties. He tells the Board it will save his office time. [2]
- Decision
The contract
At a budget meeting, the Sheriff reviews a contract with Axon to purchase updated body cameras and Tasers. The Board votes unanimously to sign it. The minutes record no price, no term and no quantity. The same meeting hears that the Sheriff's budget will need to rise because vehicle and equipment prices keep going up, and that the office wants an additional deputy. [1]
Body cameras are the surveillance technology most often defended as a check on the people wearing them, and there is a good case for that. It works when the footage is governed: when there are rules about when the camera runs, who can watch, how long the video is kept and what happens to an officer who switches it off.
Franklin County’s public record contains none of that. What it contains is this, from 9 June 2025: the Sheriff reviewed a contract with Axon to purchase updated body cameras and Tasers, a commissioner moved to sign it, another seconded, and the vote was unanimous.[1] No price. No term. No number of cameras. No policy.
The absence of a figure is worth noting on its own. The same Board records a price for a camera system in an ambulance building to the cent, and for a trailer to carry weed sprayers. A body camera contract with the largest vendor in American policing passed with no number attached to it in the minutes.
The other Axon line
Two weeks before the contract, the Prosecuting Attorney brought the Board his budget and asked for a new line item: a subscription to Axon to process discovery, with the company willing to split the fee with the two surrounding counties.[2]
That is the other half of how this works. A department buys the cameras, and then the prosecutor buys the software that turns what they record into evidence a court will take, and the two are billed separately and voted on separately, weeks apart, by the same three people. Neither item in this county’s record names the other.
What we do not know
- What does the Axon contract cost, how long does it run, and how many cameras does it cover?
- How long is body camera footage kept, and when may an officer switch a camera off?
- Does the Sheriff's Office have a written body camera policy, and is it published anywhere?
- Which two counties share the prosecutor's Axon discovery subscription, and what does sharing involve?
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 Franklin County and how public comment works there.
How to show up in Franklin 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. Franklin County Board of County Commissioners minutes, 9 June 2025, Axon Body Cams and Tasers Contract · Meeting record · · accessed
- 2. Franklin County Board of County Commissioners minutes, 27 May 2025, Prosecuting Attorney fiscal year 2026 budget · Meeting record · · accessed
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