Davis County approves emergency Axon contract to restore evidence portal after vendor failure

Davis County commissioners voted May 5 to approve an emergency contract with Axon (evidence.com) after a vendor failure disrupted the county's ability to receive, manage and deliver electronic evidence to defense counsel.

Troy Rollins of the county attorney's office told the commission the county's evidence system had been "on life support" after its prior vendor was acquired by a California company and support lapsed, leaving prosecutors, investigators and courts unable to upload and process large files. "When that blood stops flowing through the body and you're on life support," Rollins said, "that's where we were at." He said the breakdown created the risk of delayed cases and potential rulings if discovery could not be provided in a timely manner.

County staff described a fast procurement that used a national cooperative (NASPO) agreement to piggyback on another state's contract with Axon. A county staff member said the purchase was treated as an emergency to avoid months-long procurement delays and to restore operations quickly. Staff emphasized that the Axon platform offers features the county needs, including effectively unlimited storage, tools for creating and redacting video clips, and translation and transcription capabilities.

The contract presented to the commission is a five-year agreement with an option to extend for up to five additional years at the same year-one pricing; county staff said the extension would be entirely at the county's election. Rollins and staff told the commission the purchase was necessary to avoid backlogs that were consuming staff time and endangering case progress. Todd Ottzinger, speaking later in the meeting, said the breakdown had affected both defense counsel and victims and praised the cross-department response to find a workaround while the contract was finalized.

Bob Stevenson moved to approve the item; John Crofts seconded. The chair called for a voice vote and commissioners answered "Aye"; the motion passed.

The contract was presented as an operational imperative rather than a discretionary program increase. Staff acknowledged the price was material but did not provide a specific dollar amount during the presentation; they said the county negotiated termination rights in the event of non-appropriation and specific provisions to allow termination if funding is not available.

What happens next: county information systems and the criminal division will work on integration and migration to Axon, and staff said they expect the new system to remove current manual workarounds and to accelerate evidence processing. No timeline for full cutover was given at the meeting.