The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors has approved the purchase of body-worn and patrol-car cameras for use by the sheriff’s office.
The agreement was part of the consent calendar that the Board of Supervisors approved 5-0 on Nov. 29. The sheriff’s office is believed to be the final agency in Contra Costa County to acquire and use body-worn cameras.
Other agencies that have contracted out with the sheriff’s office already use the technology. Body cams helped lead to the assault conviction of Andrew Hall, a Danville police deputy, for the 2018 on-duty fatal shooting of Fremont resident Laudemer Arboleda.
The contract runs over 10 years and will cost the county $12.5 million overall, with an annual bill of about $1.2 million. The county will be purchasing the cameras from Axon Enterprise, Inc., an Arizona-based company that develops technology and weapons products for military and law enforcement and whose equipment is already used by several Bay Area police agencies.
Sheriff’s office spokesman Jimmy Lee declined to comment.
According to the Board of Supervisors, the sheriff’s office will save $5 million by entering into a decade-long agreement. The annual payment through June 30, 2024, will come through allocations of Measure X, according to the agreement.
How the rest of the annual payments will be made will be determined at a later date. The sheriff’s office will continue to request the funding through Measure X, according to the Board of Supervisors. Measure X is a half-cent sales tax voters approved in November 2020 that among other things can be used for emergency response.
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