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The Constable's Axon agreement

In January 2026 the Commissioners Court approved a five-year Axon contract worth $1,506,691.03 for Constable Precinct 2. The item called it video evidence equipment and Taser devices. The priced quote behind it also carries ten plate reader licenses, a real time crime center platform and four drone licenses.

At a glance

The agreement
Axon quote Q-693394-45839MS, billed to Kaufman County Constable Pct. 2 in Forney. Program length 60 months. Total cost $1,506,691.03, and the same figure with tax [1]
When the Court approved it
20 January 2026, item 8, moved by Commissioner Skeet Phillips, seconded by Commissioner Tommy Moore, carried [2]
How it was bought
Through the BuyBoard Cooperative Purchasing Program under BuyBoard contract 743-24. Under section 271.102 of the Texas Local Government Code, buying this way satisfies any state law requiring competitive bids, so no bid notice described the equipment in public [1]
Plate readers on the quote
Ten Axon Fleet 3 ALPR licenses, one camera each, over 60 months, $38,406.00. Plus ten Axon Fleet real-time location, alerts and livestream licenses at $10,152.00 [3]
A real time crime center platform
Axon Fusus in three configurations on the same quote: Core CAD, four Core Pro 2.0 units and one Core Elite AI 2.0 unit, each over 60 months [3]
Drones
Four Axon Air Evidence.com pilot data licenses, over 60 months [3]
AI-assisted report writing
41 licenses for Axon Records Draft One, described on the quote as AI-assisted report writing, $158,993.49 over 60 months [3]
What the item and the minutes call it
Video evidence equipment, platform, evidence management system and Taser CEW devices. Plate readers, Fusus and Axon Air are named nowhere in either [2] [4]
The payment schedule
$4,000.00 in August 2025, $311,523.79 in October 2025, then $297,791.81 in each October from 2026 through 2029 [1]
How many cameras are installed, and where
Not stated. A license is not an installed camera, and no document in the packet lists a site [3]
How long a plate read is kept, and who can search it
No retention period, search rule or audit requirement appears in the packet or in any other Kaufman County document read for this page [1] [3]

How it happened

  1. Decision

    The quote is executed

    A First Amendment in the January 2026 packet records that the customer executed quote Q-693394-45825BH on 20 June 2025, governed by the Axon Master Services and Purchasing Agreement. The amendment's purpose is to incorporate the BuyBoard cooperative contract into the agreement by reference. The priced quote filed behind it in the same packet carries a different suffix, Q-693394-45839MS, and is signed on 8 and 10 July 2025. [1]

  2. Decision

    The Court approves it in one motion

    Item 8, submitted by Constable Jason Johnson of Precinct 2 and marked for action rather than consent. The minutes record a motion to approve a contract with Axon to provide video evidence equipment, platform, evidence management system and Taser CEW devices for Constable Precinct 2, moved by Commissioner Skeet Phillips, seconded by Commissioner Tommy Moore, put to a vote and carried. [2]

  3. Decision

    Eight more vehicles

    Item 5, again from Constable Johnson: a contract to expand Axon vehicle camera systems for eight new add-on vehicles. Axon quote Q-838850-46121RS, $24,854.40 in June of each year from 2026 through 2030, total $124,272.00. Moved by Commissioner Skeet Phillips, seconded by Commissioner Terry Crow, carried. [5] [6]

A Texas constable is an elected law enforcement officer with a precinct of their own, a small staff, and no obligation to buy what the Sheriff buys. In Kaufman County the largest surveillance purchase on record belongs to one of them.

On 20 January 2026 the Commissioners Court took up item 8, submitted by Constable Jason Johnson of Precinct 2. The minutes record the motion in one sentence: a contract with Axon to provide video evidence equipment, platform, evidence management system and Taser CEW devices for Constable Precinct 2. Commissioner Skeet Phillips moved it, Commissioner Tommy Moore seconded, the vote carried. The whole sitting lasted thirty-nine minutes and ran to twenty-four numbered items.

The quote behind that sentence runs to 60 months and $1,506,691.03.

What the sentence leaves out

The priced pages of quote Q-693394-45839MS list what the money buys. Alongside the body cameras, the in-car systems, the Tasers and the evidence platform, three things appear that the item’s title does not mention.

Ten Axon Fleet 3 ALPR licenses, one camera each, $38,406.00 over the five years, with ten more licenses for real-time location, alerts and livestream at $10,152.00. Fleet 3 turns a patrol car’s camera into a plate reader, so these are readers that move.

Axon Fusus, in three configurations: a Core CAD license, four Core Pro units and one Core Elite AI unit. Fusus is the platform that pulls camera feeds, including private ones, onto a single screen for a real time crime center. It is bought here as a subscription line, not as a building.

Four Axon Air pilot data licenses, which are the evidence-management side of a drone program. No drone purchase appears anywhere in Kaufman County’s record.

The packet also carries the Axon ALPR Appendix, the contract terms governing Axon Fleet, Axon Outpost and Axon Lightpost. By its own wording that appendix applies only when such products are on the quote.

Bought without a bid notice

A First Amendment in the same packet records that the quote was executed on 20 June 2025 and that the purchase runs through the BuyBoard Cooperative Purchasing Program, under BuyBoard contract 743-24. Section 271.102 of the Texas Local Government Code says a local government buying through a cooperative satisfies any state law requiring competitive bids. So the purchase never passed through the moment where a public bid notice would have described the equipment.

The amendment itself was the reason the item came to the Court in January, six months after the quote was signed. Its entire operative text incorporates the BuyBoard contract by reference and leaves everything else unchanged.

Then eight more vehicles

On 26 May 2026 Constable Johnson came back with item 5, a contract to expand Axon vehicle camera systems for eight new add-on vehicles. Quote Q-838850-46121RS: $24,854.40 in June of each year from 2026 to 2030, $124,272.00 in total. Commissioner Phillips moved, Commissioner Crow seconded, carried. That meeting lasted fourteen minutes.

Whether those eight vehicles carry plate reader licenses of their own is not established here. The item and the minutes say vehicle camera systems, and this page does not read more into them than that.

What nobody has been told

No document in either packet says how many of the ten plate reader licenses are running, or on which vehicles, or where those vehicles patrol. None states how long a plate read is kept, who may search the stored reads, whether a search is recorded, or whether the data is shared outside the precinct. None says what the Fusus platform is connected to.

Texas requires none of that to be published. A resident who wants to know has to ask.

On the map

The community has mapped 206 devices of this type in the county on OpenStreetMap. These are community reports: the vendor and operator of each point are unverified, and none is confirmed to belong to this system. See them on the map →

Street names from reverse geocoding — © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).

What we do not know

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 Kaufman County and how public comment works there.

How to show up in Kaufman 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. 1.
    Kaufman County Commissioners Court, agenda packet, 20 January 2026, item 8: Axon quote Q-693394-45839MS summary and First Amendment to the Agreement · Primary document · · accessed
  2. 2.
    Kaufman County Commissioners Court, minutes, 20 January 2026, item 8 · Meeting record · · accessed
  3. 3.
    Kaufman County Commissioners Court, agenda packet, 20 January 2026: Axon quote Q-693394-45839MS, pricing pages · Primary document · · accessed
  4. 4.
    Kaufman County Commissioners Court, agenda, 20 January 2026, item 8 as posted · Primary document · · accessed
  5. 5.
    Kaufman County Commissioners Court, agenda packet, 26 May 2026, item 5: Axon quote Q-838850-46121RS payment summary · Primary document · · accessed
  6. 6.
    Kaufman County Commissioners Court, minutes, 26 May 2026, item 5 · Meeting record · · accessed

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