Bozeman police, city commission sign Axon contract amid public outcries

Bozeman, MT – On Thursday, October 15, the Bozeman chapter of Montana for Palestine (MT4P) learned that the newly-published agenda for the upcoming October 20 City Commission meeting contained a vote to approve a five-year, $2.4 million contract with Axon Enterprise Inc.

Despite Axon’s collaboration with the terrorist Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they were selected to replace the Bozeman Police Department’s aging body cameras, in-car camera systems, and tasers. Over the next five days, MT4P both reached out to commissioners, providing them with recommendations for alternatives and highlighting issues with Axon, and organized a public comment campaign against the item.

Despite the limited forewarning, the vote October 20 saw around 25 community members come to give public comment. In the over 60 minutes of concern and opposition, community members were clear with their statements against the brutalization of immigrants, the surveillance of their community, and their distrust in the commission.

Riley Ophus, a Montana State University student, stated, “This company is actively involved in escalating mass surveillance, and also enabling ICE’s abuse of immigrants. Over the summer, Axon sold $220 million worth of tasers to ICE, following a multi-million dollar investment in the company by Donald Trump. No company which sells tasers to ICE, or accepts major investments from Donald Trump, should receive even a dime of Bozeman’s money.”

Natsuki Nakamura said, “We’ve been told that BPD [Bozeman Police Department] will not use facial recognition and automatic license plate readers because ‘Montana law generally prohibits it.’ While we know Montana law has exceptions for law enforcement to use it, we also know state laws can change, and we also know that Bozeman had fully intended to put up red light cameras until the state preempted cities from doing so.”

The commissioners provided lip service to the comments but unanimously voted the contract through anyway.

Resident Homa Masood responded, “There is nobody forcing you to take on this contract – you already made the decision, before you came here, that you were going to pass it. And if that’s the case I don’t know why we even bother with having public comment! You have people coming in and telling you that the Israeli military, police, navy, and prison services are deploying Axon manufactured tasers – and you’re just shrugging and saying, ‘Yeah, sorry, that sucks.’”

The commission’s blatant disrespect for the public’s opinions on the city’s actions are not a deterrent. Public comment campaigns in Bozeman are far from over, because, even if Mayor Joey Morrison believes that “[this] isn’t how things get done – you can’t just cajole people into doing what you want,” the Bozeman community is losing trust in the commissioners’ ability to meaningfully affect city processes in a way that benefits them. Bozemanites want a city commission that will fight for them – the hardworking people of Bozeman – and are prepared to continue the fight!

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