Decatur County renews Guardian inmate-tracking contract; upgrade adds facial-recognition capability

Chief Deputy Eric Blickett presented a three-year renewal for the county's Guardian inmate-tracking system at the June 1 Decatur County commissioners meeting, saying the system records inmate movements electronically and the pending upgrade will add cloud-based reporting and facial-recognition capability.

Blickett said the Guardian system is already in use for RFID-based inmate movement tracking and that the first-year total for the renewal is $17,700, which includes a $2,500 command-cloud upgrade and a $3,990 training fee. He told commissioners the county will pay the upgrade and training from the jail commissary account, which he said falls under the statute of allowable commissary expenses.

"The Guardian system is what we use to track all inmate movements... It's an RFID system," Blickett said. He added, "This year's upgrade will also let us do facial recognition. So, we'll be able to not just go by the RFID on a bracelet, we also be able to scan his face," and noted the vendor will provide three days of on-site training.

Commissioners moved, seconded and approved the contract renewal by voice vote. The transcript records commissioners saying "I" in favor but does not provide a roll-call tally in the public meeting record.

Context and next steps: The county said the Guardian upgrade is intended to improve reporting and accountability. Staff noted the upgrade is not a replacement of the current system but an enhancement. The sheriff's office will schedule the vendor's on-site training and implement the cloud features under the contract terms.