WSJ reports Boise was one of cities where Taser courted police officials, won sole-source body cam contracts

More national news for Idaho: A Wall Street Journal investigative report on how Taser is courting police departments around the country to convince them to give it lucrative no-bid contracts for police body cams uses the Boise Police Department as its Exhibit A.

“Last spring, as Taser sought the Boise contract, it invited deputy police chief Eugene Smith for a paid trip to its technology summit in Scottsdale, featuring speakers from the company and other police departments,” wrote Journal reporters Zusha Elinson and Dan Frosch. “Hope you can come down to Scottsdale. It’s a great time of year to visit,” Taser’s David Flowers wrote to Smith in a March email, the Journal reported. He went on the trip, then helped prepare a sole-source deal to buy body cameras from Taser – even as a city technology official urged him in an email to consider Panasonic Corp. products.

The Boise Guardian took note of the report today, and spoke with Boise Police Chief Bill Bones, who told the Guardian’s Dave Frazier, “I screwed up. I never should have approved the trip for Deputy Chief Gene Smith. It was a mistake.”

The WSJ article also notes email exchanges with police in Norfolk and Richmond, Va., which like Boise, then signed sole-source, no-bid contracts for body cams with Taser each worth more than $1.5 million. You can read the full article here .

“Emails obtained through public-records requests show Taser has convinced cities it is the only provider of the products that can help them – even though several competitors say they offer similar services,” the Journal wrote. “Taser also offered trips to conferences at the company’s Scottsdale, Ariz., headquarters for police officials from cities where it courted so-called sole-source deals, which let the company skip the bidding process.”