The Bozeman City Commission approved a contract with Axon for body-worn and dashboard cameras for the Bozeman Police Department as part of the consent agenda, despite drawing approximately one hour of public comment raising concerns about surveillance, facial recognition, and automatic license plate readers.
The consent agenda, items F1 through F15, passed 5-0. No commissioner removed the Axon contract from consent for separate debate.
Before public comment opened, Commissioner Emma Bode provided a detailed overview of the technology, stating that the body-worn cameras do not have facial recognition capability and that Montana law would require a judicial warrant to enable such technology. She said the dashboard cameras include automatic license plate reading technology, but the Bozeman Police Department will not activate it. Bode noted the department's current cameras already have that capability and it remains disabled. She said Montana law requires a published policy and public reporting before any use of automatic license plate reader technology.
"I can say in conversation with Bozeman PD leadership, that they have zero appetite for enabling automatic license plate reader technology," Bode said. She expressed concern about cloud data storage but acknowledged the city's current system already uses cloud storage and that criminal justice data is subject to strict state and local sharing rules.
Bode asked the commission to direct the city manager to add a surveillance and technology section to the police department's quarterly report and to develop a city artificial intelligence policy with particular attention to surveillance technology.
Public comment on the consent agenda ran roughly one hour, with approximately 26 people speaking, according to the city manager. Mayor Joey Morrison said he had spoken with an ACLU representative the previous day about alternative vendors.
Commissioner Alison Sweeney expressed support for creating a city policy to fill gaps in state law. "Our police do need body cams," she said, adding she would vote for the item while continuing to push for a surveillance technology policy. Deputy Mayor Douglas Fischer took a different position, pointing to existing privacy protections in state and city law and saying he did not want the commission diverted from other priorities such as affordable housing and mental health. "I would not want to see us, frankly, pulled off some of those priorities to deal with an AI or a tech policy right now," Fischer said.
Commissioner Jennifer Madgic said she agreed with putting policies in place to protect privacy. Bode said she regretted not pulling the item from consent, noting the result was the same discussion with less opportunity for individual commissioners to vote separately.
Mayor Morrison defended the staff who negotiated the contract—City Attorney Greg Sullivan, city staff member Anna Savarud, and Deputy Chief Joe Swanson—and said alternative vendors he asked about "virtually all do most of these same things." He expressed frustration about the timing of engagement, saying the commission had made itself accessible to the public and that there was "a lot of us that want to be doing the same things" who keep intersecting on opposite sides.
Following the vote, Bode and Sweeney both raised concerns about timing of controversial consent items. Bode said commissioners typically see the agenda Thursday night or Friday morning and requested earlier notice on items involving artificial intelligence or surveillance. Sweeney said she had submitted questions by email without receiving substantive answers and felt she did not have adequate time or access to information to make informed decisions. "It's incredibly frustrating," she said.
City Manager Chuck Winn responded that staff would work to identify potentially controversial items in advance and said the Axon contract had not appeared controversial when it was reviewed at the Leadership Planning Team meeting two weeks prior. He said releasing draft agendas earlier could be explored, noting that many items change between draft and final versions. Winn said there was interest in improving the process and asked commissioners to specify their needs.
Morrison acknowledged that it would not have been unreasonable to flag the Axon item as potentially controversial two weeks earlier, but noted it was difficult to predict in advance which items would generate significant public response. He said if the commission wanted to ensure all five commissioners see a two-week-ahead agenda, that could be arranged, but that a formal full-commission review would constitute a noticed meeting requiring minutes.