{"id":210993,"date":"2026-05-08T12:33:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T16:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/08\/how-ai-could-help-triple-the-cost-of-baltimore-polices-body-camera-program\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T12:55:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T16:55:12","slug":"how-ai-could-help-triple-the-cost-of-baltimore-polices-body-camera-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/08\/how-ai-could-help-triple-the-cost-of-baltimore-polices-body-camera-program\/","title":{"rendered":"How AI could help triple the cost of Baltimore Police\u2019s body camera program"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebanner.com\/community\/local-news\/baltimore-maryland-police-crime-artificial-intelligence-KV4D3VK5IZACPBPTLKDD3IK53A\/\">How AI could help triple the cost of Baltimore Police\u2019s body camera program<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebanner.com\/community\/local-news\/baltimore-maryland-police-crime-artificial-intelligence-KV4D3VK5IZACPBPTLKDD3IK53A\/\">https:\/\/www.thebanner.com\/community\/local-news\/baltimore-maryland-police-crime-artificial-intelligence-KV4D3VK5IZACPBPTLKDD3IK53A\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-05-08 12:33:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.thebanner.com\">www.thebanner.com<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>Baltimore Police officials proposed a $150 million no-bid contract with Axon Enterprises for Tasers, body cameras, and related software. They highlighted Axon&#8217;s existing market dominance and the complexities and costs associated with switching providers.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>The spending board approved the expenditure with concerns over the lack of competition, given the potential $50 million savings from other vendors like Motorola Solutions, which was not considered.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>The contract details reveal that AI features significantly contribute to nearly tripling the annual cost of services. It includes $10 million annually for two years with AI services, then escalating to $16 million annually if AI services are retained.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>The BPD will pilot the AI system with other city agencies over the first two years to establish usage guidelines. It aims to enhance public safety and operational efficiencies.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Council President Zeke Cohen opposed the contract, expressing skepticism about not pursuing competitive bidding and highlighting the missed opportunity to explore cost-effective options.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>The contract builds on a series of previous agreements with Axon, which began in 2016 for $11.7 million and has been extended multiple times, totaling around $33.5 million for the equipment and services through 2025.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>The exact benefits and time-saving advantages of the AI functions in reviewing body camera footage remain unclear, and the BPD will review AI-generated outputs for accuracy and appropriateness.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How AI could help triple the cost of Baltimore Police\u2019s body camera program https:\/\/www.thebanner.com\/community\/local-news\/baltimore-maryland-police-crime-artificial-intelligence-KV4D3VK5IZACPBPTLKDD3IK53A\/ Publish&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":210995,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.thebanner.com\/resizer\/v2\/ACABOXLDG5BRXK2AG2SGZKC2XY.png?auth=c0f53b2a14bb041368fa7a8454a3eb37f575dfff0caad4815d9943f9afd96516&width=1280&height=720&focal=850,372&quality=85","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210993"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210993"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210996,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210993\/revisions\/210996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}