Lewiston Police | What else the check register bought
Phone extraction software, video management, a covert tracking phone, fingerprint scanners, a mobile camera trailer and drones. Each is one line in a list of bills, and none has an agenda item of its own in the city record we read.
At a glance
How it happened
- Deployment
Phone extraction, renewed
The register the Council approves carries Cellebrite's annual maintenance fees for upgraded and additional licenses, $17,139.45. Cellebrite's tools copy the contents of a seized phone. [1]
- Deployment
Video management and a tracking phone
One register carries an annual renewal for Genetec software at $123.60 and an annual renewal for what it calls a narcotics surveillance phone, paid to CovertTrack Group Inc, at $720.00. [2]
- Deployment
The yearly Axon bill
The register carries $104,090.48 for the renewal of the department's annual Officer Safety Plan. It is the largest single surveillance related payment in the record we read, and the agreement it renews is older than that record. [4]
- Deployment
A bigger phone extraction subscription, and fingerprint scanners
Cellebrite is paid $21,441.76 for an annual subscription to Inseyets and a smart translator, against $17,139.45 the year before. The same register pays DataWorks Plus for fingerprint scanners and printers for the police department and for community development. [3]
- Deployment
Drones, in the supplies
The register carries an FPV drone with camera at $1,205.50, a DJI Avata 2 two-way charging hub at $59.00, and an iPad case for the SWAT drone iPad. A register six weeks earlier carried another drone with camera at $124.48, and a 2024 register carried a drone pilot instructor course and test. [5] [6]
The plate readers are the part of this that a resident might notice from the street. They are not the largest part. The same check registers that carried the plate reader license carried most of a modern police surveillance kit, one line at a time.
Reading a phone
Cellebrite makes the tools police use to copy the contents of a seized phone. Lewiston pays for them yearly. The register approved on 14 October 2024 carries $17,139.45 in annual maintenance fees for upgraded and additional licenses.[1] The register approved on 22 September 2025 carries $21,441.76 for an annual subscription to Inseyets, Cellebrite’s current extraction product, and a smart translator.[3]
Watching video, and following a phone
One register, approved on 9 December 2024, carries two lines worth reading together. One is an annual renewal for Genetec software at $123.60, bought through a reseller. Genetec makes video management systems, the software that puts many cameras on one screen. The other is an annual renewal paid to CovertTrack Group Inc, which the register describes as being for a narcotics surveillance phone, at $720.00.[2]
The largest bill
On 14 April 2025 the Council approved a register carrying $104,090.48 to Axon Enterprise for the renewal of the department’s annual Officer Safety Plan.[4] That is Axon’s bundled subscription, and it is by some distance the biggest surveillance related number in the record we read. The agreement it renews predates the record, so what it covers is not something the city’s published documents answer.
Drones, filed under supplies
The department flies drones. The evidence is a set of purchase lines: an FPV drone with camera at $1,205.50 and a DJI Avata 2 two-way charging hub in the register approved on 23 March 2026, an iPad case for the SWAT drone iPad in the same run, another drone with camera at $124.48 six weeks earlier, and a drone pilot instructor course and test in a 2024 register.[5][6]
What the pattern is
None of the purchases above reached the Council as its own agenda item in the record we read. Each was a line inside a payment list approved as part of a consent agenda, alongside utility bills, office supplies and shower curtains. That is an ordinary way for a city to pay its bills. It is an unusual way for a community to decide what it is willing to be watched by, and it is the only way this decision was made here.
What we do not know
- What is in the annual Officer Safety Plan the city renews for $104,090.48, and when was it signed?
- How many drones does the department fly, and is there a written policy for their use?
- Where does the mobile camera trailer get deployed, and who decides?
- What rules govern a phone extraction, and how long is the extracted data kept?
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 Nez Perce County and how public comment works there.
How to show up in Nez Perce 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. Lewiston City Council packet, 14 October 2024, check register · Meeting record · · accessed
- 2. Lewiston City Council packet, 9 December 2024, check register · Meeting record · · accessed
- 3. Lewiston City Council packet, 22 September 2025, check register · Meeting record · · accessed
- 4. Lewiston City Council packet, 14 April 2025, check register · Meeting record · · accessed
- 5. Lewiston City Council packet, 23 March 2026, check register · Meeting record · · accessed
- 6. Lewiston City Council packet, 9 February 2026, check register · Meeting record · · accessed
- 7. Lewiston City Council packet, 23 February 2026, check register · Meeting record · · accessed
- 8. Lewiston City Council packet, 13 October 2025, check register · Meeting record · · accessed
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