Baltimore to spend $153M for police Tasers, AI body cameras
Baltimore to spend $153M for police Tasers, AI body cameras
Publish Date: 2026-05-06 14:49:00
Source Domain: www.thebanner.com
Baltimore will spend $153 million to replace the city Police Department’s fleet of Tasers and to add a new complement of body-worn cameras with artificial intelligence capabilities.
The city’s spending board on Wednesday approved a no-bid, 10-year contract with Axon Enterprises, a company that outfits law enforcement agencies with various technologies, to continue supplying the Baltimore Police Department with body cameras, stun guns and data management software.
In a 3-1 vote approving the contract, Council President Zeke Cohen voted against the agreement while Comptroller Bill Henry abstained, both citing concerns about the way the deal was bid.
Baltimore Police already uses Axon Tasers and body cameras, police spokesperson Lindsey Eldridge said in an email ahead of Wednesday’s Board of Estimates meeting.
While the Tasers are simply updated replacements for those that have worn out, the body cameras have new capabilities, she said. These cameras have an AI function that can “assist officers, detectives, supervisors and reviewers in translation, transcription, summarization, and searching” footage.
Eldridge explained the contract includes a two-year provision for Baltimore Police to test the AI function and then determine whether it wants to purchase those capabilities.
During the test run, the city and the Police Department will develop guardrails for AI use and standard operating procedures, Eldridge said. “All new technologies will be fully tested and piloted before agency-wide deployment is ever considered.”
Henry and Cohen, the two members of the five-person Board of Estimates who don’t work for the mayor, expressed concerns Wednesday about the lack of competition for the Axon contract.
“We owe it to ourselves and the residents that live here and pay taxes to engage in competitive bidding processes,” Cohen said.
Police officials countered that their existing use of Axon infrastructure would mean that switching to another company would lead…
