About this project.
Defend Deschutes is a fact-based, volunteer campaign on the proposed expansion of automatic license-plate readers across Deschutes County, Oregon. The numbers and the documents do the work; the copy stays measured.
How we work
Every factual claim on this site maps to a visible source. Primary sources — meeting packets, the Axon contract, Oregon statutes — outrank journalism; journalism outranks inference. Vendor and company material is labeled as an interested party. We say “proposed,” “under consideration,” “the board has not approved this.” We never assert that ALPRs are a done deal or that any official is corrupt.
We distinguish what is documented from what is an open question. Where a claim is contested or single-sourced, we hold it as a question — and we publish a records request to resolve it — rather than asserting it as fact.
What this campaign is — and isn’t
The City of Bend has not approved a new ALPR deployment. Deschutes County approved a $2.41M Axon contract on June 3 2026 — a body-camera and in-car-camera vendor migration that is ALPR-capable but does not purchase or license plate-reading. We never say the County “bought license plate readers.”
Corrections policy
If anything here is inaccurate or out of date, tell us and we will fix it. We date every page’s last check, we keep a local mirror of cited sources, and we correct the record promptly and visibly. Email info@defenddeschutes.org.