Fort Bend County Sheriff | Fusus camera sharing platform
A video platform for the Sheriff's Office, approved twice without competitive bidding, and eight agreements under which local businesses, schools and a residential association let the office see their own cameras.
At a glance
- The decisions
- 28 February 2023, item 41F, moved by Commissioner Vincent Morales, seconded by Commissioner Andy Meyers, 5-0. 10 September 2024, item 40J, approved in a block of Purchasing items moved by Commissioner Meyers, seconded by Commissioner Dexter McCoy, 4-0 with the County Judge absent [2] [7]
- The cost
- Not to exceed $50,000 each time, paid from state forfeited assets. The second approval covers 10 September 2024 to 9 September 2025 [2] [7]
- How it was bought
- Both times the Court exempted the purchase from competitive bidding, as protecting public health or safety and as available from only one source [2] [7]
- Private participants
- Eight, approved by the Court in three items in February, March and June 2023: seven businesses and schools, and the Sienna Residential Association [4] [5] [6]
- Is it still running
- The last Fusus item we found in the Commissioners Court minutes is the September 2024 approval, whose term ended in September 2025 [7]
How it happened
- Procurement
Federal pandemic money
An American Rescue Plan Act transfer of $133,854 includes the "FUSUS Project a county wide public safety effort to reduce violent crime", 5-0. The item also funds dispatch software and does not say how much goes to Fusus. [1]
- Decision
The first participants
The Court approves participation agreements with two businesses and a school, 5-0. [4]
- Procurement
The platform, without bidding
The Court exempts an agreement with Fusus LLC from competitive bidding and approves it, not to exceed $50,000, from state forfeited assets. [2] [3]
- Expansion
A residential association
A participation agreement with the Sienna Residential Association, 5-0. [5]
- Expansion
Donor cameras
Participation agreements with three businesses and a school "for access to donor cameras", 5-0. [6]
- Procurement
A second year
The same exemption and a new agreement with Fusus LLC, not to exceed $50,000, running to 9 September 2025. The attached proposal carries an Axon Enterprise contact and an Axon sole source letter for Fusus. [7]
Fusus is police software for viewing many live video sources in one place, including cameras that businesses, schools and residents agree to share. By 2024 Fort Bend County was buying it with a sole source letter from Axon Enterprise.
The platform
On 28 February 2023 the Fort Bend County Commissioners Court approved an agreement with Fusus LLC “for enterprise software management services designed to aid law enforcement response and investigations in an amount not to exceed $50,000”. The money came from state forfeited assets. The same motion exempted the purchase from competitive bidding, as a purchase needed to protect public health or safety and as one available from only one source.
The signed agreement attaches Fusus’s proposal to the Sheriff, dated 30 August 2022. It offers a platform for viewing public and community video, set up for up to 500 video feeds; a public website where residents and businesses can register their cameras; a month of Fusus staff calling local businesses to register and connect cameras; a panic alert app; crime mapping; and connection of the Sheriff’s dispatch system, vehicle locations, drone feeds, covert cameras and license plate readers as required.
On 10 September 2024 the Court granted the same exemption again and approved a second agreement, also not to exceed $50,000, running to 9 September 2025. The proposal attached to it carries an Axon contact and a sole source letter from Axon.
A month before the first agreement, the Court had approved an American Rescue Plan Act transfer that named the “FUSUS Project a county wide public safety effort to reduce violent crime”.
Private cameras
Between February and June 2023 the Court approved three items on behalf of the Sheriff’s Office, each a memorandum of understanding “regarding the FUSUS Program participation” with named private partners: two businesses and a school in February, the Sienna Residential Association in March, and three businesses and a school in June, the last “for access to donor cameras”.
The signed agreement with the Sienna Residential Association is a scanned document. It gives the county access to the video sources the partner chooses to share, for use in the county’s video software. The partner supplies each camera’s make, model, network address and login details. The county agrees not to share the partner’s camera views with the public or outside the county without written consent, to limit access to the staff who monitor the system, and to log logins. The agreement says routine live monitoring of the partner’s cameras is not intended. It runs for five years, and either side can end it by written notice.
What the record does not say
We could not find, in the Commissioners Court minutes from January 2019 to September 2026 or the agreements attached to these items, how many cameras have been registered or shared, whether any plate readers or drones were connected, or who in the Sheriff’s Office views the video.
The September 2024 agreement ran to September 2025. We found no later Fusus item in the minutes. An agreement with Axon for Constable Precinct 4, on the Court’s agenda for 27 August 2026, includes Axon’s terms for Fusus. Its outcome is not in the minutes published through 10 September 2026.
What we do not know
- How many private cameras are registered, and how many are live-shared with the Sheriff's Office.
- Whether any plate readers, drones or covert cameras were connected to the platform.
- Whether the service continued after September 2025, and if so under what agreement.
- Who in the Sheriff's Office can view shared cameras, and whether access is logged and audited as the participation agreement says.
- How long video pulled from shared cameras is 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 Fort Bend County and how public comment works there.
How to show up in Fort Bend 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. Fort Bend County Commissioners Court, minutes, 24 January 2023, item 33B · Meeting record · · accessed
- 2. Fort Bend County Commissioners Court, minutes, 28 February 2023, item 41F · Meeting record · · accessed
- 3.
- 4. Fort Bend County Commissioners Court, minutes, 14 February 2023, item 31 · Meeting record · · accessed
- 5.
- 6. Fort Bend County Commissioners Court, minutes, 13 June 2023, item 43A · Meeting record · · accessed
- 7. Fort Bend County Commissioners Court, minutes, 10 September 2024, item 40J · Meeting record · · accessed
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