2 new firms to market body cams

Taser International, which is supplying the city of Memphis’ police body cameras, hired two firms to market the rollout of the cameras in the wake of a controversy last year that derailed a similar contract with The Carter Malone Group.

Bartlett-based Kelley & Associates and Missouri-based eLittle Communications will split the $880,147 that would have gone to Memphis-based Carter Malone over five years, said Joann Massey, director of the city’s Office of Business Diversity & Compliance.

She said the subcontracts would satisfy a 10 percent minority- and women-owned business participation goal in the city’s contract with Taser. Kelley & Associates is a woman-owned business and eLittle is an AfricanAmerican-owned business.

Taser awarded the subcontract to Carter Malone a few months before the 2015 election, which raised eyebrows because firm co-owner Deidre Malone was also campaign manager for then-mayor A C Wharton, who was seeking re-election at the time. After the subcontract became public knowledge, Taser and Carter Malone said they mutually agreed to part ways.