COLUMBUS, Ind. — Bartholomew County officials are studying bids for body and car cameras after the lowest bid received was for an equipment system that is different than what Sheriff Matt Myers had requested.
During a number of presentations this year, Myers and his staff had requested 57 body cameras and 54 car cameras manufactured by Axon Enterprise, Inc. of Scottsdale, Arizona.
The bid received Monday from Axon for costs and warranties over the next five years was $738,006.
While commissioners chairman Carl Lienhoop said that figure was “in the ballpark of what (Myers) had warned us about,” the apparent lowest bidder is WatchGuard Video Solutions.
The Allen, Texas, firm submitted a proposal of $692,483 — which, on the surface, appears to be $45,523 less than Axon’s bid.
However, the proposal from WatchGuard appeared to be complicated in terms of its various components, county attorney Grant Tucker said. In addition, the equipment being offered by WatchGuard is a different brand than what was requested, the attorney said.
“Well, there’s certainly going to be some discussion about that,” county commissioner Larry Kleinhenz said.
In earlier discussions, Sheriff’s Capt. Brandon Slate said Axon was preferred because their bid includes amenities at no additional charge such as unlimited cloud storage, hardware upgrades after two-and-a-half years, staff training and full warranties.
In contrast, a number of vendors wanted to charge the county extra for those same type of services, Slate said.
Instead of making an immediate decision, the commissioners agreed that Myers’ staff should go over both bids with county information technology director Scott Mayes.
For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Republic.
