The devices provided through the contract will monitor county jail detainees' heart rate variabilities and motions, according to the contract.
The technology is provided through the company 4Sight Labs and will be distributed to the county through Turn Key, which provides medical services to detention facilities throughout Oklahoma.
Turn Key bidder Mark Braley said after the meeting that he went to work for Turn Key after the company approached him with the upgraded monitoring technology. Braley worked as a deputy county commissioner under District 2 Darry Stacy at the time Turn Key approached him.
"I enjoyed the county, but once I saw this product, and I looked at the position that law enforcement and corrections are in right now, I said, 'Man, this is something that could benefit. This saves lives.' How do you vote against saving lives?" Braley said.
District 2 foreman Paul Meyer, who took the dais Monday in commissioner Darry Stacy's absence, abstained from the vote. Meyer declined to specify why he abstained from the vote when asked after the meeting, but also said he doesn't see any potential conflicts of interest in the contract.
Braley pointed to Meyer's abstention as evidence that the county has avoided conflict of interest in the contract. He also said county legal counsel said the contract was not a conflict of interest.
Stacy did not immediately respond to request for comment Monday about potential conflicts of interest in the contract and the bidding process for the monitoring system.
District 1 Rod Cleveland joined District 3 Harold Haralson in voting for the contract after clarifying Turn Key's relationship with 4Sight.
©2022 The Norman Transcript, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
