The Wright City Board of Aldermen approved the mutual purchase and use agreement for the Magnet Graykey and Magnet AXIOM software following a discussion of the matter with officials from Wright City Police Department.

Wright City Police Chief Tom Canavan said that he had brought the issue up to the board before, but was told to present the matter again in January. The program anticipates that Wright City and Truesdale would share the cost of the equipment, with Wright City housing the computer for the software. Truesdale had previously approved the purchase of the equipment in December.

Canavan said the cost to Wright City would be $10,645 annually for the cost of the software and $9,649 for the purchase of the computer, which the city would bear as they will house it in their facility.

Canavan brought Det. Sgt. James Holmes to speak about the software and its importance.

Holmes said the software is a forensic acquisition tool which allows the departments to download the entire contents of cell phones for police investigations. He said it produces information in readable data, which can then be turned into court exhibits and reports.

He said that as the department does not currently have the software he has worked with other agencies who have the software and has utilized the software on over 50 devices in 2025 alone.

Holmes said the software is extremely useful in child sexual abuse cases and Holmes said that in Wright City in 2025 he would ballpark between 25 and 30 such cases he himself has worked on. He noted that one of the issues in using other department’s software is that the lag times from submitting requests to actually receiving evidence can sometimes take months, specifically in working with St. Charles Court. He said that in many cases this creates problems.

“If you don’t begin the acquisition (of evidence) in a matter of days you won’t get it,” he noted.

Canavan added to Holmes' comment, noting that when he handled such cases, it was common to wait months to receive information back when he submitted it to St. Charles County.

The discussion then turned to the cost. Canavan said that he did not have funds in his budget for this year for the software. Several members of the board asked if he would add it to his budget for fiscal year 2027, which he said he would. Holmes then noted that if the city purchases the software it would allow the police department to become an affiliate of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Holmes said that membership in ICAC would allow the department to apply for grants that generally are only awarded for ICAC members and that Magnet has grant writers who apply for grants specifically for this purpose. He said while he couldn’t make any promises, purchasing the software would open up more grant opportunities for the department to facilitate the annual fee.

After some more discussion, the board voted 3-0 to amend the budget to use COPS grant funding to pay the $20,294 for the cost of the equipment and software as well as the memorandum of understanding with the city of Truesdale to share the equipment and software.