Title
Recommendation to Authorize the City Manager to Negotiate and Execute a Six-Year Agreement with Axon Enterprise Inc. for the Acquisition, Support, and Maintenance of 88 Body-Worn Digital Video Cameras and a Digital Evidence Management System in an Amount Not to Exceed $793,792.96. (Police 3121)
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Axon Enterprise Inc. (Axon) provides the Police Department with body-worn cameras (BWC) and provides a secure web-based database for video storage. Their product enables secure electronic sharing of digital evidence with the Alameda County District Attorney. New California state laws and an internal policy change have created a higher demand for recordings and additional capabilities to redact videos. The new laws and policy amendment have made our current contract inadequate in performance and storage space. Entering into the new contract will eliminate the obligation to purchase additional storage and provide automated functions to redact videos.
BACKGROUND
In June of 2015, City Council authorized the Police Department to enter into a $424,752.61 contract with Axon (formerly known as Taser International) to provide body-worn cameras and store digitalized evidence for five years. That contract is set to expire in June of 2020.
Since that time, Axon has exceeded the Police Department’s expectations in security and reliability with the City of Alameda’s (City) digitally recorded evidence. Axon’s product and customer service have been excellent, and staff would like to continue this business relationship.
The Police Department uses Axon’s equipment to record video, take still photographs and capture audio files. The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office has also migrated to this digital evidence platform, which enables secure sharing of digital evidence with their office. Moreover, recordings from these devices have proved to be beneficial in increasing transparency, and providing evidence in criminal prosecutions.
In recent months, the State of California has passed new laws regarding the public’s access to some of these recordings, including Assembly Bill (AB) 748, which will take effect on July 1, 2019. This law mandates particular videos be subject to public release. In complying with AB 748, the Police Department will need effective software to redact certain elements of the recordings (juveniles, sexual assault victims, and certain personal information). Additionally, on February 1, 2019, the Chief of Police, modified the Police Department policy on recordings from permissive to mandatory with certain exceptions (Exhibit 3). The new law and policy change have a substantial impact on the amount of digital evidence that will need to be managed and stored, which in turn will lead to increased data/storage costs.
Our current contract will expire in June 2020 (Exhibit 1). The Police Department would like to renegotiate the remaining year of the current contract and enter into a new contract to cover additional storage needs and provide other necessary automated features.
DISCUSSION
A significant feature of the Axon body camera system is its proprietary EVIDENCE.com media storage platform. Axon offers security through a cloud-based storage system that is accessed by a web-based portal. This type of support provides the Police Department with a simple and effective management tool to download, store, and manage digital media. The system allows Police Department personnel to distribute evidentiary copies for prosecution purposes efficiently.
Included in this quote are three significant product upgrades.
• Unlimited amount of digital storage space included as part of the contract;
• Increased redaction capabilities needed for the release of videos to lessen the burden on human resources to comply with the new laws;
• Additional features, which automatically “tag” recordings by category that have different retention periods based on the type of incident recorded; and
• This product does not contain facial recognition technology or any artificial intelligence component. It only recognizes the shape of a human face, which alerts the user to an item that should be considered for redaction.
Through research, agencies in similar cities typically require an average of 300 gigabytes (GB) per officer, per year for storage and retention; however, some departments use as much as 500GB per officer, per year. Presuming the lesser of 300GB/officer, this would amount to 26.4 terabytes (TB) of storage needed (44TB if 500GB/officer) for all 88 of our camera users. Currently, the Police Department is using around 14 TB of storage, which is a combination of included storage with the current contract, coupled with recently added tiers of storage because of space deficiencies. Due to ongoing BWC recordings, this number is ever increasing.
Currently, the Police Department is purchasing additional storage space in 10 TB increments at $7,500. This extra storage is necessary to enable enough storage until our current contract expires on July 1, 2020. As we begin to edge toward the 500GB/officer range, this additional cost will increase to around $20,250 for the increased storage. Adding that storage over our current contract would cost $94,300 for the remaining year of the contract. If the city chooses to enter into a new contract and move all 88 users to Axon Enterprise’s Unlimited Plan, it would cost $93,984 per year, which includes upgrades to our cameras at no charge every 2.5 years.
This new contract incorporates the Redaction Assistance Suite, which is a web-based software that helps our personnel appropriately redact video for release. This software can track and capture facial shapes, license plates of uninvolved vehicles, and computer screens and blur those images automatically. This capability is not incorporated with the current contract. Without this component, any video requiring redaction would need to be combed through frame by frame for the proper redaction of protected people, images, and information. Sifting through videos frame by frame is a laborious process and requires enormous amounts of staff time. This software upgrade has been proven to reduce employee time by as much as 50% for the redaction of video. This would help the Police Department more efficiently respond to Public Records Act requests.
An example of this occurred in a recent case, in which four officers recorded an incident which lasted for one hour. Combing the video frame by frame, officer by officer, took a single employee nearly 80 hours to successfully redact the video.
Retention and storage of evidentiary files for prosecution are critical. Statutes of limitations for different crime codes vary greatly. Homicide evidence, for example, is retained indefinitely, as there is no statute of limitation for that particular crime. The process presently implemented requires an officer to manually “tag” or mark each video recording and appropriately categorize the video, photographic, or audio file. Based on these manual inputs, it dictates the retention and storage periods based on the crime or incident captured. Some officers spend nearly one-hour “tagging” videos at the end of each shift to ensure proper labeling of each recorded event.
The proposed new contract incorporates a feature, which automates the process described above. The software included in this quote can extract the crime type from the assigned dispatch call and automatically “tag” videos of the officers on those specific calls. In the event, that the dispatched call is reclassified, the software automatically updates based on refresh rates set by the department. Furthermore, these cameras have global positioning systems and will automatically “tag” files recorded by an officer at the scene of these crimes based on the time, assigned call, and location.
ALTERNATIVES
Option 1: The City Council approves this proposal to renegotiate the contract one year early at an amount that includes unlimited data. Axon has agreed to defer the additional costs in the new contract in a way that does not impact the FY 2019-20 budget. This allows us to immediately have access to the Redaction Assistance Suite and the auto-tagging features.
Option 2: The City Council can continue to pay at the current contract rate, which is $62,856 for the last remaining year of the contract. However, the Police Department is currently incurring data overages that are projected to increase to approximately $94,300 within the remaining year. By choosing this option, the Police Department would not have access to the Redaction Assistance and auto-tagging features for one additional year.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
The total purchase price for the six-year contract is $793,792.96. The Police Department will finance this purchase through Axon at zero percent interest for six years. The disbursement of funds will follow the attached quote (Exhibit 2). As indicated in option 2, the distribution of funds does not add any additional cost to the current budget cycle and defers the cost to future years.
Although the current contract is for five years at $424.752.61, the Police Department is only four years into the contract and has spent $361,896.61. As a result, the Police Department has averaged $90,474.15/yr. ($361,896.61÷4) per the current contract. The proposed six year contract is for $793,792.96, which amounts to $132,298.82/yr. ($793,792.96÷6). The difference between the proposed six year contract and the Police Department’s current contract as it stands today would be $41,824.67 ($132,298.82 - $90,474.15).
This increase of roughly $40,000 is primarily a result of three line items:
• Additional Storage needed due to BWC Policy modification: $10,000
• Additional Requested Service for Video Redaction: $15,000
• Additional Requested Service for Video Tagging: $15,000
The additional cost for storage space is absolutely necessary. The tagging and redaction services are being requested to improve efficiency and the effective use of the cameras. The Police Department’s BWC policy modification has resulted in a drastic increase in the need for video tagging. The recent legislative changes and policy modifications are expected to result in an increase in the time consuming process of video redaction. Both of these new services would be extremely beneficial to the Police Department.
Police Department has $63,000 budgeted for the last year under the original contract. These funds will be used to pay for the first and partially the second year of the new contract, if approved by the City Council. The remaining balance of the second year cost will be absorbed within the Police Department budget in the General Fund. Contract cost for years three through six will be incorporated in the future budgets of the Police Department. The City Council previously approved the current contract and the contract amendments are presented below:
|
Contract |
Expiration Date |
Authorized Amount |
Expended to 5/23/2019 |
|
Current Contract |
6/1/2020 |
$424,752.61 |
$361,896.61 |
|
Year 1 (FY19-20) |
|
$8,230.55 |
|
|
Year 2 (FY20-21) |
|
$89,500.69 |
|
|
Year 3 (FY21-22) |
|
$163,215.43 |
|
|
Year 4 (FY22-23) |
|
$177,615.43 |
|
|
Year 5 (FY23-24) |
|
$177,615.43 |
|
|
Year 6 (FY24-25) |
|
$177,615.43 |
|
|
Total |
|
$1,218,545.57 |
$361,896.61 |
MUNICIPAL CODE/POLICY DOCUMENT CROSS REFERENCE
This action is authorized under Alameda Administrative Rule 5, and Alameda Municipal Code Section 2-62.5, which exempts contracts with any single or source supplier for supplies, material or equipment from the City's local purchasing policy.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
This action is not a project for the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to CEQA Guidelines section 10561(b)(3) as there is no possibility that this action may have a significant effect on the environment.
CLIMATE IMPACTS
There are no climate impacts from this Agreement.
RECOMMENDATION
Authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute a six-year agreement with Axon Enterprise Inc. for the acquisition, support, and maintenance of 88 body-worn digital video cameras and a digital evidence management system in an amount not to exceed $793,792.96.
CITY MANAGER RECOMMENDATION
The City Manager recommends authorization to negotiate and execute a six-year agreement with Axon Enterprise Inc.
Respectfully submitted,
Paul J. Rolleri, Chief of Police
By,
Matt McMullen, Police Lieutenant
Financial Impact section reviewed,
Elena Adair, Finance Director
Exhibits:
1. Current Contract
2. Proposed Quote
3. Portable Audio Video Recorder Policy
cc: Eric J. Levitt, City Manager