Title
Consider a resolution authorizing the City Manager to issue a purchase order to L3 Mobile-Vision, Inc. for data center and in-car equipment related to body-worn cameras.
Body
In an effort to increase transparency and accountability in policing, the Police Department seeks to initiate the use of body-worn cameras by all front-line employees. The implementation of body-worn cameras and the storage and management systems are part of the continuing mission of the Department to provide public safety and help maintain a high quality of life for the community.
The L3 video system has been in place since 2007 and is used to manage and archive the video recorded by the digital camera systems equipped in all patrol vehicles. This purchase order will upgrade the existing L3 Mobile Vision application server and storage infrastructure with the increased capacity needed to support the addition of body worn cameras. It also includes the addition of in-car mobile routers to every patrol vehicle assigned to an officer equipped with a body worn camera. This technology brings many benefits to the officer utilizing a body-worn camera out in the field including:
1) The ability to offload large amounts of video data from both the body worn camera and in-car camera from the field. Currently, the officer must report back to the Police Department to offload large amounts of video collected on-shift. By leveraging this in-car router technology, this cumbersome and time consuming process will be completely eliminated allowing the officer to maximize his time on the street.
2) Instant access to an officers recorded video - The current process mentioned above also adds a delay in the time that command staff can access an officers video should a critical incident occur. During our tests of this technology, video recorded by an officer’s body worn camera or in car camera was accessible to command staff back at the Police Department within minutes of being recorded.
3) Satisfying the always increasing demand for device connectivity in the patrol car while keeping the cost for this connectivity down. We already have officers in the field with multiple cellular devices. This would allow us to consolidate cellular data service into the single in-car router and provide connectivity for as many devices needed in the patrol car today and into the future.
4) Security of sensitive law enforcement data out in the field - The in-car router securely connects to servers in our Police Datacenter so the officer knows any device connected to this router is secured by our network.
This proposal is for infrastructure for the body-worn camera program and in-car mobile routers. The cameras will be purchased following the distribution of funds from the previously awarded Officer of the Governor Criminal Justice Division grant.
Cost
$360,192.40
Source of Funds
General Self-Finance Construction Fund
Recommended Action
Staff recommends approval.