Commission to pay $539K for new sheriff’s office body cams

Equipment won’t arrive until end of year

New sheriff Steve Miera said his officers needed new body cameras, and Taos County commissioners didn’t hesitate much before approving a resolution authorizing the county to pay roughly $539,000 for the upgrades.

Commissioners originally planned to pay for the upgrades with money derived from the county’s share of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars, but the county is uncertain that the federal pandemic relief dollars can be used for such an expenditure. Waffling on a previously-quoted price to purchase the new Axon 3 body cams means the county will now pay more for the equipment, but commissioners Tuesday were ultimately convinced to save taxpayers some money by locking in a deal now rather than later.

“The reason it’s coming twice is because originally, when it was presented as a lease, it was presented using ARPA funds,” explained Elsa Vigil, chief procurement officer for the county. “At this point in time, ARPA funds are not allowed to be used for this type of mandate, so therefore, I’m asking you to basically just start from the drawing board.

“We will probably not see these items be delivered for about 10 months,” Vigil added, noting that payment won’t be due until the equipment arrives.

New Mexico has required state and local law enforcement to wear body cameras since September 2020. Taos County Sheriff’s deputies have been wearing body cameras for over a decade.

“This is an unfunded mandate, is that not right?” asked District 3 Commissioner Darlene Vigil.

“This was something that was pretty much forced down our throats through the Legislature” in 2020, Miera said, also acknowledging that his department had first undertaken the purchase of body cameras in 2009.

But “the legislature pushed it through so fast they didn’t give any consideration as to how smaller agencies were gonna come up with the purchase and the storage,” Miera said, adding that maintenance on the digital equipment, as well as the necessary upgrades, are expensive.

The sheriff’s office also added vehicle dash cams to the purchase order, something that former Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe, who now serves as undersheriff, said is mission critical for deputies.

“You really need both, because just having a dash cam to pull up to a business or a domestic [dispute] and go inside, the belt camera’s much better, because they’re with you,” Hogrefe told the Taos News. “But if you’re following a vehicle [that] you’re initiating a stop on, making captures, it’s helpful for trials. Really, it’s a conjunction of both.

“Everything’s getting so expensive,” Hogrefe added.

Axon Enterprises, Inc. is the public safety technology company that produces the body cams and associated equipment and licensing, as well as unlimited cloud storage, which is included in the cost estimate the company sent to Sheriff Miera on Jan. 12; however, the estimate expired on Jan. 20. District 5 Commissioner Ronald Mascareñas told his fellow commissioners that it wouldn’t be prudent to delay signing off on the purchase of the body cameras.

“I think this is something that, when the pandemic came through, we had to adjust in how we do things,” Mascareñas said. “Securing things ahead of time, I think, is the wave of the future. Personal experience: I didn’t secure a vehicle at $110,000 and for me to buy that same vehicle now went up to $148,000.

“So that’s what we’re facing moving forward,” Mascareñas continued. “And this is very important that we need to secure these funds. Not only is it a mandate, but it helps protect your individual deputies, you guys, [and] everybody else.”

Body cameras play as much of a role in protecting law enforcement against false civil rights claims as they do in providing evidence of crimes or protecting members of the public against violations of their civil rights.

“This is House Bill 4, the Civil Rights Act,” Deputy County Manager Jason Silva told commissioners, noting that body cam footage could be used “to support the aid of the person being detained or the deputy at any time. This is where we need you as the governing body of Taos County to support us with bringing this to Santa Fe in terms of supporting, shoring up our needs in terms of this mandate.”

The 2021 New Mexico Civil Rights Act was intended to eliminate blanket claims of “qualified immunity” among public employees and provide an avenue for the public to hold public employees to account when they are accused of violating a person’s civil rights.

The bill was aggressively lobbied against at the time by New Mexico Counties, the organization that represents the interests of the state’s 33 counties and provides professional development and insurance coverage for property or workers compensation, for example, but which also offers coverage against lawsuits stemming from law enforcement activities in detention centers and elsewhere — including claims of civil rights violations committed by county employees.