Franklin County Sheriff | The Sheriff's Office camera system
The Sheriff's own cameras were eight years old and failing weekly. The Board paid $27,786.60 to replace all of them rather than $18,671.05 to replace the computer behind them, and one commissioner stepped out of the vote.
At a glance
- Price
- $27,786.60 [1]
- Who approved it
- The Board of County Commissioners [1]
- Why
- The old system was eight years old and failing weekly [1]
- Vendor
- The minutes name none. The county had moved its other buildings onto Verkada earlier the same year, but nothing in the record connects the two [1]
- How many cameras, and where
- Not stated in the county record [1]
- How long footage is kept
- Not stated in the county record [1]
How it happened
- Decision
Full replacement, and a recusal
The county's IT specialist and the Sheriff-Elect tell the Board the Sheriff's Department camera system is eight years old and starting to have failures weekly. They present two options: replace the whole system for $27,786.60, or replace only the computer system and leave the cameras for $18,671.05. One commissioner, Boyd Burbank, recuses himself from the discussion and the vote. The remaining commissioners agree on full replacement. The minutes record the vote as unanimous with him abstaining, and give no reason for the recusal. [1]
This is the smallest of Franklin County’s camera decisions to write about and the largest single figure in its camera record.
On 25 November 2024 the county’s IT specialist and the newly elected Sheriff told the Board that the Sheriff’s Department camera system was eight years old and starting to have failures weekly. They offered the commissioners a choice. Replacing the whole system, cameras and all, would cost $27,786.60. Replacing only the computer system behind it and keeping the existing cameras would cost $18,671.05.[1]
The Board chose full replacement, and the minutes record something unusual on the way there: “Boyd Burbank recused himself from the discussion and vote”.[1] The motion carried with the other two commissioners, and the minutes note the result as unanimous with him abstaining. They give no reason for the recusal, and neither does anything else in the county’s published record. The same commissioner had abstained eleven months earlier when the Board took up the Verkada bid for the county’s other buildings.
Recusal is the system working. A commissioner who steps out of a vote is doing what the rules ask. It is recorded here because the vote is the only public account of this purchase, and a reader deserves the whole of it.
What the record does not say
The minutes do not name a vendor, do not say how many cameras there are, do not say what they cover and do not give a retention period. Franklin County holds no jail of its own, so these are not detention cameras: people arrested here are taken to Caribou County. What is left is a sheriff’s office building, its dispatch center and whatever else the office decided to point a camera at, for $27,786.60, described in the public record in four sentences.
What we do not know
- Who supplied the replacement system? The minutes name no vendor.
- How many cameras are there, and what do they cover? The jail is in another county, so these are not jail cameras.
- How long is the footage kept, and under what policy?
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, 25 November 2024, Sheriff Office Cameras · Meeting record · · accessed
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