Denver City Council postpones vote on Axon contract to replace Flock

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston recently announced the city's split from Flock, the controversial license plate reader company, and proposed a new partnership with Axon. 

It's a $150,000 deal for one year and was supposed to be voted on in the Health and Safety Committee Wednesday morning. However, the city still hasn't received the final contract, and asked to move the vote to Wednesday, March 18. Members are hoping to have the details in hand in the next few days. 

"I want to make sure we have in every single contract clarity on how we actually execute to make sure that our civil liberties of residents are protected," said Councilman Darrell Watson, who represents District 9 and chairs the Health and Safety Committee. 

The city's Surveillance Task Force has been working on an ordinance that would place guardrails around the use of surveillance technology, but it hasn't established one yet. 

"What that means for real-world implications is that the guardrails have to exist in the contract," said Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer, representing District 5.

The one-year deal with Axon would include 50 cameras across the city, cutting the number of cameras they have by more than half.

"We have seen significant success with the 111 cameras," Sawyer said. "Are we going to be able to have that same level of success with less cameras?" she asked Cliff Barnes, Denver Police Department's cyber bureau commander.

"I think there will be an impact," Barnes replied. "I just ... can't quantify what that impact will be at this point." Barnes added that this contract will serve as a kind of test run for some of the changes, including reducing the number of days data is retained from 30 to 21. 

Axon does not have a national database from which information could be shared, and DPD says it operates within the highest level of federal cloud security standards.

"Really, what that amounts to is there's over 392 individual security standards or controls that the vendor has to comply with and show that they're compliant in order to achieve that," Barnes said.

However, a partnership with Axon brings about new concerns.

"The device itself actually has two sensors on it," explained Axon's vice president of sales. "One is dedicated to the ALPR portion; the other one is dedicated to live streaming."

"This is really different than flock," City Councilwoman Sarah Parady, who represents the city at large, later explained. 

That means the discussions surrounding this contract are far from over. 

"This Axon contract settles some of my concerns," Watson said. "We will have longer discussions as this goes through the city council process."

If passed out of committee next week, it will head to the city council floor for all members to discuss and vote on.