County attorney seeks $12.6 million for prosecutors, digital‑evidence tools

Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell told the Board of Supervisors that her office is seeking about $12,570,000 in above‑baseline funds for fiscal year 2027 to address sustained caseload growth and a rapid increase in digital evidence.

"Everything I talk about is a serious need because of changing times," Mitchell said, describing how body‑worn cameras, pole and doorbell video, social media and massive phone datasets now require lengthy, specialist review. She gave two recent case examples to illustrate the workload: a child‑abuse homicide involving thousands of photos and videos and a suspected homicide with 1,900 digital media files and a 5,000‑page police report.

Mitchell asked the board to approve funding for additional attorneys and legal support staff and to purchase two technology products she described as essential: Cellebrite for device extraction (requested at about $650,000) and Axon Justice Premier for evidence organization and automated transcription/redaction (requested at about $850,000 for ongoing maintenance). "If we lose it entirely, we face the potential that thousands of cases could creep by," she said, arguing the tools would reduce review time even though a human must still verify automated outputs.

She also described other components of the request: hiring prosecutors and support personnel to respond to expanded behavioral‑health mandates tied to Proposition 409, funding for public‑records redaction specialists and continued support for diversion programs previously funded with ARPA dollars. Mitchell said some ARPA and grant funds will expire and that retaining positions funded temporarily by ARPA will require board action.

Supervisors acknowledged the public‑safety priority and pressed for more detail on software costs and coordination with county IT. Vice Chair Lesko asked whether the office has evaluated AI tools; Mitchell said an internal AI committee is vetting options and cautioned that accuracy and ethics require careful testing. Chair Brophy McGee asked staff to provide deeper cost analyses of IT license and maintenance requests.

Next steps: Mitchell said the finance team will submit detailed line‑item justifications; board staff said they will follow up with questions as part of the budget review process.