Yakima County Sheriff | Body-worn cameras
Axon cameras on deputies since August 2022, bought with a million state dollars earmarked for the legislature's recorded-interrogation mandates, with no published policy we could find.
At a glance
- Deployment
- Deputies began wearing cameras the week of 22 August 2022; 60 of the 70 cameras ordered were issued to deputies and detectives (contemporaneous press) [1]
- The money
- Costs covered by $1 million in state money earmarked for complying with legislative mandates; a 20-camera package with linked stun guns ran $178,000 for five years of hardware, software and training (press) [1]
- Why
- State reform laws require recording interrogations of adult felony suspects and juveniles; cameras let deputies record interviews in the field instead of driving suspects to equipped rooms (press) [1]
- The maintenance tail
- Board record, 2024: a ~$47,250 Axon equipment agreement (August), a $0 contract extension (August), and a $27,810.36 "First Contracted TAP Refresh" of the camera fleet (October) [2] [3]
- The policy
- We could not find a published body-worn camera policy on the county site; the Sheriff's published manual page carries the plate reader policy only [4]
How it happened
- Context
Cameras deployed
Deputies and detectives begin wearing Axon cameras, 60 of 70 issued. Spokesman Casey Schilperoort: "We tested four versions of body cameras, and Axon was the best in terms of what we were looking for." [1]
- Decision
The fleet refreshed
The board approves Agreement 359-2024, Axon's first contracted TAP refresh of the body camera equipment, $27,810.36. [3]
Bought for the interrogation mandate
The program’s origin is unusually specific: state reform laws required recording interrogations, the legislature put up compliance money, and a million dollars of it bought Axon cameras for Yakima County deputies in 2022. The camera that satisfies a recorded-interrogation mandate also records everything else a deputy does, which is how a narrow compliance purchase becomes a general surveillance capability.
The upkeep runs through the board’s consent calendar, an equipment agreement and a fleet refresh in 2024. What does not appear anywhere we looked is the policy: the office publishes its plate reader policy on its transparency page and its body camera policy nowhere we could find, so the rules governing the older and larger program are the ones the public cannot read. The records request asks for them.
What we do not know
- The body-worn camera policy in force, absent from the county site where the plate reader policy is published.
- The full Axon contract and whether it includes transcription or other AI products.
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 Yakima County.
What we have documented in Yakima 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.
- 2. Board of Yakima County Commissioners agenda, 13 August 2024 (Agreement 299-2024) · Meeting record · · accessed
- 3. Board of Yakima County Commissioners agenda, 1 October 2024 (Agreement 359-2024) · Meeting record · · accessed
- 4. Yakima County Sheriff's Office, YCSO Data Transparency page · Primary document · accessed
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