Richmond, California
A civic pamphlet. Not a newspaper. No ads. Nothing for sale.
Publius
8 October 2026.
Some words do more work than others. In contracts, the hardest-working word in the language is “accordingly.” It means: the number will change, and I am not going to tell you what it changes to.
On October 6 the Axon contract finally reached a vote, on its third agenda. The meeting started with closed session at 4:30 and ran to the eleven o’clock limit, after an extension. The night opened with the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s presentation on license plate readers, answering the questions Council had posed about effectiveness, limits, and harms. Its presenter made the point that a reader “hit” is a lead, not proof. The Police Chief said that searches older than thirty days must have been of other agencies’ data, given Richmond’s thirty-day deletion, and that a national-search feature had been switched off once it was discovered.
Then came Axon, as agendized: an increase of $3,500,000, to a total not to exceed $12,000,000 through September 2029, adding readers, cameras, and drones; plus up to $500,000 with a separate vendor for building cameras. The Chief presented a closed system, a transparency portal, monthly audits shared with the police commission, six drone docks, and a one-for-one swap of 110 cameras.
A substitute motion to approve as written, with negotiations to begin and final approval after more data, failed. The main motion, from Councilmember Bana with Councilmember Brown seconding, approved everything except the license plate readers, with the reader contract to come back for approval and public input, and with staff to “adjust the contract amount accordingly.” It passed, with Councilmember Wilson and the Mayor voting no.
So the drones are in. The cameras are in. The readers are out, for now. And the price is whatever $12 million becomes after you subtract an unknown sum for the part you removed.
No revised ceiling was stated. The return date for the readers was spoken as both October 20 and October 27. Minutes have not been posted, so the official record of what was approved does not yet exist. As of this writing, a resident who wants to know how much the City has agreed to pay its largest police technology vendor must wait for staff to do some subtraction in private.
I have some admiration for the result, which is a compromise that lets almost everyone claim something. Readers’ critics can say the readers were stopped. Supporters of police technology can say the drones and cameras were approved. Both can go home before midnight.
But “accordingly” is not a number. A Council that spent three meetings and the better part of a season on this contract owed the public a figure at the end of it. The trick for next time is simple: before the vote, ask staff what the amended ceiling is, and put that number in the motion. If staff do not know, continue it a week. The drones will keep.
The next regular meeting of the City Council is Tuesday, October 20, 2026.
— Publius