Travis County Sheriff | The 2027 Axon request
The county's technology department has asked the Commissioners Court for about $30 million over four years to expand its Axon contract, which would add a real time crime center product over the jail's 1,100 cameras, drone detection, and body and in-car cameras across eight agencies.
At a glance
- What is asked
- A modification consolidating the county's Axon law enforcement contracts and adding licensing, hardware and new products, in the Fiscal Year 2027 budget [1]
- The base contract
- $1,276,620 in FY 2024, $3,657,927 in FY 2025, $3,763,810 in FY 2026 and $4,586,963 budgeted for FY 2027 [1]
- The increase asked for
- The modification "would increase the existing contract by $5,469,114 in FY 2027, a 119.2 percent increase over the FY 2027 base contract", plus $168,900 one time [1]
- Over four years
- "a total amount of $29,995,446 would be needed between FY 2027 to FY 2030 should the proposed modifications be implemented" [1]
- Which agencies it covers
- The Sheriff's Office, Constables 1 to 5, the Fire Marshal, Emergency Medical Services and Transportation and Natural Resources park rangers, with the District Attorney, County Attorney and defense offices on the evidence side [1]
- The real time crime center
- "Axon FUSUS integration to support real-time video integration", replacing the jail's VI Monitor system across about 1,100 cameras [1]
- Drone detection
- "Dedrone by Axon: airspace detection and documentation to detect and track unauthorized drones over detention facilities" [1]
- Where the Court got to
- Discussed on 1 September 2026. No action taken, and the FY 2027 budget was not adopted in any minutes published through 15 September 2026 [2]
- Whether cameras outside the county would connect
- not stated. Fusus is sold as a way to bring private and other agencies' cameras into one view; nothing in the request says whether Travis County would do that [1]
How it happened
- Procurement
The Taser contract that sets the base
The Court approves contract 4400008005 with Axon Enterprise for "law enforcement Taser equipment" at $10,952,124.71 over ten years, bought through the Sourcewell cooperative purchasing program, which the agenda request says satisfies state competitive bidding requirements. It is added to the consent agenda. The priced quote is Taser 10 and virtual reality training; it carries no camera line. [3] [4]
- Procurement
The request lands in the preliminary budget
The Technology and Operations department's FY 2027 budget request proposal asks to consolidate and expand the Axon contract: body cameras, Fleet 3 in-car cameras and Taser 10 across eight agencies, unlimited transcription, live translation, Dedrone drone detection over the jail, Fusus real time video integration replacing the jail camera system, American made drones for the Sheriff's Office and the Constables, and Drone as First Responder capability. [1]
- Debate
The Court takes it up and takes no action
Item 32, the Axon law enforcement FY 2027 budget request for funding beyond the preliminary recommendation, is discussed. The minutes record who spoke and "RESULT: DISCUSSED". The packet carries staff answers to commissioners' written questions, including one on the cost of eight drones. [2] [5]
Travis County buys most of its police technology from one company. The Axon law enforcement contract paid $1,276,620 in Fiscal Year 2024, $3,657,927 in 2025 and $3,763,810 in 2026, and the county’s preliminary budget puts it at $4,586,963 for 2027 without any changes.[1] The request the Commissioners Court is now looking at would change that.
The modification “would increase the existing contract by $5,469,114 in FY 2027, a 119.2 percent increase over the FY 2027 base contract”, with $168,900 one time on top, and the budget document says “a total amount of $29,995,446 would be needed between FY 2027 to FY 2030 should the proposed modifications be implemented”.[1]
What the money would buy
The budget request proposal lists it. Body cameras, Fleet 3 in-car camera systems and Taser 10 across the Sheriff’s Office, Constables 1 to 5, the Fire Marshal, Emergency Medical Services and the park rangers. Unlimited transcription of recorded evidence, and live translation that “enables deputies to communicate across 150+ languages from their body camera”.[1] Migration of two petabytes of evidence into Axon’s cloud for the prosecution and defense offices.
Three items in it are new kinds of capability for the county:
- A real time crime center. The proposal asks for “Axon FUSUS integration to support real-time video integration”, and lists the jail’s camera system, VI Monitor, as one of the obsolete systems Axon would replace, with “cloud jail-video modernization for approx. 1,100 cameras”.[1] In the summary of what the package replaces, the line reads: replace the jail camera system “with FUSUS (Real-Time Crime Center)”.[1]
- Drone detection. “Dedrone by Axon: airspace detection and documentation to detect and track unauthorized drones over detention facilities.”[1] The stated problem is contraband flown into the jail, and that the office’s current detection only sees DJI aircraft.
- More drones, on more agencies. The proposal “replaces DJI Drone hardware with American made drones” and “brings drone programs to our constables”.[1] The park rangers’ share is two Skydio X10s at $24,375.00 each.[1]
Where it stands
The Court took the item up on 1 September 2026. The minutes name the program manager, the Sheriff’s Office IT director, a budget analyst and the county executive for technology as the people it heard from, and record the result as discussed.[2] The packet for that meeting carries written answers to commissioners’ questions, including a commissioner’s question about how eight drones could cost half a million dollars, which staff answered with an eight-year lifecycle estimate of roughly $665,000 to $690,000 and a note that Drone as First Responder would be a separate procurement if bought outside the contract.[5]
No vote had been taken when this page was written, and the Fiscal Year 2027 budget had not been adopted in any minutes the county had published.
How the county buys from Axon
Through a cooperative. When the Court approved the $10,952,124.71 Taser contract in January 2025, the agenda request explained that Travis County participates in a cooperative purchasing program which “satisfies any state law requiring a local government to seek competitive bids for the purchase of an item through a state agency such as Sourcewell”.[3] That item went through on the consent agenda.[4] Buying this way is legal and common. It also means the moment where a bid notice would have described the equipment in public does not happen.
What we do not know
- Whether the Court funds the request in the FY 2027 budget, and in what form.
- Whether Fusus would take in cameras the county does not own, and under what agreement.
- What the jail's roughly 1,100 cameras record, how long the footage is kept, and who can watch it live.
- What the Constables' drone programs would be used for, and whether a county policy would govern them.
- Whether a Drone as First Responder program would be bought separately, as the staff answers say it would.
What you can do
Show up
Systems like this one are approved by boards, councils and committees that meet in public. We have not yet confirmed where each of them meets in Travis County.
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Surveillance Self-Defense →Sources
- 1.
- 2. Travis County Commissioners Court, minutes, voting session, 1 September 2026, item 32 · Meeting record · · accessed
- 3.
- 4. Travis County Commissioners Court, minutes, voting session, 7 January 2025, item 16 · Meeting record · · accessed
- 5.
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