Recommendation to adopt Specifications No. RFP 15-069 and award a contract to Dell Marketing, L.P., of Round Rock, TX, for the purchase of body worn camera equipment, software support and cloud storage, in an annual amount not to exceed $191,000, and authorize a 10 percent contingency in the amount of $19,100, for a total annual amount not to exceed $210,100 for a period of one year, with the option to renew for two additional one-year periods, at the discretion of the City Manager.  (Citywide)
So let me begin by transfer to our clerk. If you can read item number 21, please. Report from police recommendation to award a contract to Dell Marketing for the purchase of a body worn camera equipment, software support and cloud storage for a total annual amount not to exceed $210,000 citywide. Thank you. I'm going I'm going to turn this over to staff for an update and a report on this item, and then we'll we'll go from there. So, Mr. West. Mayor, council members. This is about body cameras. As you know, we've been working on this for approximately a year. There's money in the budget this year to do that. Chief Luna and his management team have been working tirelessly with the Police Officers Association to work out the kinks as we implement this. So tonight I'm going to turn this item over to Chief Luna and his team to go over the purchase of the hardware for the body cameras. And he can talk to us about the number of people participating in this one year pilot program. Chief Luna. Thank you, Mr. West. And. Real quick, before I get going with my report. Mara Velasco, who is our financial officer, is joining me to help answer any questions that I know many of you probably will have. Deputy Chief Rich Rocky from our patrol bureau and Commander Paula Barron here is we're here as a team to answer any and all questions that you may have. So to start off, thank you to the mayor and City Council for your support and patience through this process. Our goal with the body worn camera program is to help us enhance community trust and underscore law enforcement legitimacy and accountability by using video to better document police interactions with our community . Our objectives for deploying the cameras are officer and citizen accountability. Reduce injuries to our officers, reduce citizen complaints, reduce uses of force, and enhance investigations. And what we've seen with the many other departments that we have studied is that these reductions that we're seeking pretty much do occur and in some large percentage numbers. Moving on, a committee was formed in March of 2014 to consider the use of body worn cameras. Objectives of this committee included to research best practices determine the feasibility of body worn cameras, identify the best product, or what we thought was the best product and vendor for our needs. Research and develop a policy for body worn use and identify infrastructure concerns. Subcommittees were formed to look at body worn camera policy. We looked at over 20 policies that covered body worn cameras, including best practices from the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Police Executive Research Forum. Another subcommittee was looking at equipment. A separate one was looking at legal issues, financial considerations and technology. So as you could see, the subcommittee looked at really all of the issues across the board. The recommendations of the committee have led us to the development of a pilot program. The details of this pilot program will include camera deployment, which is planned for approximately March of 2016. It will take place in the West Patrol Division. We will deploy between 40 and 50 cameras to include patrol officers and supervisors. The financial impact of this pilot program includes your approval to contract contract with Dell Marketing for $210,000. It is being funded by one time, by a one time appropriation allocated to the police department in FY 15 for strategic technology investments. Additional equipment may be considered and purchased during the pilot program through alternative funding sources. This contract includes cameras, network components, software applications, cloud storage, training of staff and systems support to interface with existing systems. Although we are asking for $210,000 for this pilot program, we realize that full implementation of a body worn camera program will cost more . Additional cost are unknown at this time. Additional areas of concern to us include infrastructure, data storage and personnel to handle potential additional workload. In conclusion, there are three things I want to leave you with. One, the body worn camera is a tool. It's not the silver bullet. One of the things that we have learned throughout our research is body worn cameras are a tool to help us enhance community trust and underscore law enforcement legitimacy and accountability by using video to better document police interactions with our community. Number two, we will not know the full cost of the body worn camera program until the pilot is complete. And three and final. Just a reminder to everybody, because we're getting a lot of questions from many, is that this is a pilot program and we will learn a lot. We will document everything. And there will be many changes and adjustments as we move along. And and we're ready to do that as as the year wears on. So with that mayor and members of the city council, this concludes my report. And I can answer any questions that you may have. Thank you, Chief. I will have a couple council questions. So let me go through those and I'll close by making some comments as well. There's a there is a motion in a second. So I may start with the maker of the motion, which is Councilman Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to I want to just say that how proud I am at our city, our mayor, our police department and our peo way for stepping forth and and taking this on, testing this this is utilizing new technology to encourage 21st century policing. I know that these things are concerned, controversial in this day and age, and particularly in our time. I know that this is uncharted territory with respect to the fiscal impact and what the ramifications might be in terms of our public records and things like that. But I'm really proud to say that this wasn't a fight. This was done, you know, in partnership. And it will be it will be treated as such as a partnership. I know that this is I do have just a couple questions. I know that we are starting with about 50 units being deployed. And I think that's a start that's smart just to start small. And. Really measure it. So my first question is, what are the metrics? What are we going to how are we going to evaluate success or how are we going to track this thing? Councilman Richards. The four primary areas that we're looking at is reducing injuries to officers, reducing citizen complaints and uses of force in all of the research we did for the last year. We were looking at numbers in reductions in some of those areas that ranged between 60% all the way up to 80%. We're looking forward to seeing if that automatically or I should say, as a year goes on, if that will impact our numbers as significantly. That's why we picked the West Division to do this, is because historically that is one of the busier parts of town where these areas, these numbers are typically higher. So we will have the cameras issued to officers that will stay with them. They will not be rotated around. They will stay with these officers throughout the duration of that year. And then we'll be able to analyze what the numbers were in the beginning, to what the numbers were at the end, compare them, analyze them. And that will be part of a report that we will be turning in at the end of the pilot program to see if it was if it's something that we want to continue with, if it's something that we as a city want to invest money into, certainly. So I would I would just ask. So it's I'm glad to hear that there will be a report back to city council before the decision was made to. I see there's two one year extensions but the report will come the city council would it would that come in a two from four paper report? Are you going to come to city council and and give a presentation? I think it would be good if the council just knew whether the pilot will be eliminated or extended and had the opportunity to weigh in before before that decision is made. So how would that work? We know we're going to be putting a report together in what fashion? We haven't discussed it to that length. I have to discuss that with the city manager's office and see how we can best present the information that has been gathered. Another part I have not mentioned is we are working with Cal State, Long Beach, and although we have not solidified exactly how we're going to do this, we are talking to their academics and we're working together to figure out how they can help us with the report in analyzing all the information that I've just put forth. Thank you. I think that makes a lot of sense to work with an academic institution. So I would just I know that. So I know that this is a one year pilot. We only funded it for one year, correct? That's correct. Okay. So one way or the other, it would have to come to city council for funding if we extend the pilot anyway. That's correct. Okay. Thank you so much and good luck. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Price. May the second. Any comments? I do. Just briefly. Thank you very much, Chief, for the presentation. And this was an item that we had a report on at our public safety meeting, and Commander LeBaron and Deputy Chief Rockey did an excellent job at the presentation at committee. A couple of issues that were raised at committee that I kind of want to follow up on. One, to see if we've made any progress on in terms of identifying these issues in the future. And two, because I think they're their subjects of of general interest in regards to this item is because the costs are unknown. And given our budget projections for the next few years, what efforts are we taking to determine whether grant moneys are available for us to be able to implement this technology on either a broader scale or continue using it at the scale that the pilot is going to encompass? We are consistently looking for any funding opportunities that would assist us in this program. Maura, who said it to my left her shop is is consistently looking at them. And what we have to make sure as we move forward is that we're looking for these opportunities. But in a lot of what we've seen thus far, there's a lot of strings attached to them of things that they are mandating us to do if we take that money. So we have to be very cautious as we're proceeding forward to make sure that we're not putting the city in a place that they can't get out of two or three years from now, depending on our financial situation. Have we identified? A process regarding when and under what circumstances footage. Would be released. Under the pilot program. Yes, we have. That was part of our policy discussion. And and we have a policy that's going to work through this pilot program. And basically, when you have a criminal investigation, we can't release video when we're dealing with a criminal investigation or an administrative investigation. But what we do, in fact, see is that we will follow the public records request act policy that we have. And if it fits under that criteria, working with the city attorney's office, we will be able to release the video. How are we planning on transferring this footage to either the city prosecutor or the district attorney's office in terms of discovery? What is that done through the cloud or disks? How is it done? I'm going to let Commander LeBaron answer that that question. Councilwoman Price at. This point, we're not completely finalized. On that, but we are. Working with the district. Attorney up in Los Angeles, as well as our local district attorney's office, to establish a sharing option. And the software allows us to create a license, which we could share that information with them directly through the cloud. I know that when Commander LeBaron talked to the Public Safety Committee regarding this, we had some questions about the mounting options. I know that was one of the pluses of this company. Have you had an opportunity, Commander, since our discussion, to find out if we have any other mounting options that would allow for better placement in terms of evidence collection? Depending on the size or the height of the officer. Councilwoman Price, member of City Council. We have looked at that. This particular device will be in a sleeve, in a uniform shirt or a vest. We are looking more at a, you know, uniform shirt option with all of the tech technologies. They all have some limitations as to what they will capture and what they will not capture based on the positioning. This one does capture quite a bit of the scene as it is placed on the the uniform shirt. Consumer prices that I'm just checking off my notes. Sorry. Have we determined what the fee is going to be for our uploads to the cloud? Any specific figures that we've associated with this for the pilot so that we can start thinking about future costs associated with this technology? Councilmember Price, the quote that was prepared for us includes 43 terabytes of storage space. There was no fee on the monthly basis or per upload basis, but that total was provided to us by the vendor. Okay. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. Sorry, Councilmember Gringo. Thank you, Mayor. My concern is always with pilot projects, is that we should have more than adequate time to do it in one year. And now I understand that it's going to be coming back to the council at the end of one year. Is will we be emboldened? In Boulder. We hold it to this company should we decide that the data we've gotten thus far isn't sufficient to make a decision as to whether we want to go full fledged with this program or not? I would hope that if it goes back to the Council for reconsideration and should we decide not to proceed with their full fledged program, that we can go out again and solicit another vendor? Because my concern is, is that I don't see extending pilot programs to the same entity if the if the data is not there to proceed with a full fledged program. So is that part of the the thinking that we're going to have for the next go around if we were to decide to extend the pilot program to another year? We will be doing a full evaluation of how the provider or the company responds to us. After all, we are their customer. Our standards are high. We will have very high expectations of them, and they're expected to perform. And if they don't perform, there's other vendors out there. So they know that. We've we've we've talked to them and they're. They understand that full well. Well, I would I would hope that I'm going to be in favor of this. However, I would with the caveat that when it does come back to us in one year, that we take all our options into consideration for additional vendors if necessary. Thank you. Councilmember Mungo. Yes. I just want to a follow up question on one of my colleague's questions. I think that you've answered a lot of what we had, and I appreciate the presentation, Chief. In my experiences when going into a home, there are certain calls where family members are in vulnerable positions. And while the Public Records Act is vitally important. Victim rights are also pretty important to me. And I was hoping that you could communicate a little bit about that process and at what times we have discretion. Victim rights are an absolute priority to us. When we're talking about praise or when we release videos, if we're dealing with situations such as crimes involving children, sexual assault and things of that nature. Those are videos that are situations and videos that are very sensitive. We will not be releasing those within the policy that we have. It also talks of situations where, for example, if an officer's in an emergency room when they can record and when they can't. The policy is pretty strict about those type of situations. And again, because this is a pilot program and as we have studied many other departments, we have seen and heard about some of their failures. So we're trying to avoid those pitfalls. And I'm very confident in what the committee came up with and the policy that we've put together that that it's going to be pretty darn good in regards to actually very good in regards to protecting and respecting victims rights. I appreciate that, Chief. I appreciate the process that was first followed to get to this point. I know that there are departments all over the country that are looking at this, and I'm really proud of the methods that you went through in ensuring that we had a very high input, high understanding process. So thank you for that, and thank you for sharing the victim's opponents components. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Gonzales. Thank you. I first want to commend a police department in our way and all of the community members that were involved in this, because I think it's we've done things a little bit differently, like we often do here in Long Beach is, you know, we were rolling out a program, but we're really involving the community at large . And so I want to thank you all for doing that. I know you worked with CCJ and a few other community groups to get it right. A few questions I have. So I think you answered my question. I'm glad to see that this pilot program will be started in the West Division for those various reasons. As far as are we comparing? I have I mean, I know we've looked at other cities, but is there another city that we're looking at a little bit more closely that has done things that we'd like to do? I don't know if there's a specific component or a specific city. Yes, we've we've looked at several cities, including in in California. We looked at Oakland, we looked at Modesto, we looked at San Diego. We've been paying a whole lot of attention to what the cities of Los Angeles or LAPD is doing, L.A. County sheriffs. And again, we've seen some of the things that are working and some of the things that aren't working. And I think that's the advantage. And when I started my report and I thanked all of you for your patience, there were other cities that jumped the gun. They were, I think, more interested in headlines than they were in substance and actually looking at what can solve a problem. And I think a big part of our success thus far is that we've been able to take a step back and and look at what other people are doing and then figure out how to move forward with the best policy. Specifically, when we're talking about the finances as it relates to this, and we learned that from the cities I just named. Great. Thank you. And then which officers are who will be selected and at what times? I mean, do we know that at this point or have we given any thought to that? It will be assigned to West Division. The afternoon shift, which we call watch three and the officers were randomly selected. Read. Thank you. And then last question, because I do work for a technology company is I'm almost certain Dell is just. A compliant. Councilmember Price that it employer counsel Alberto Gonzales. That's correct. Our cloud host. Is Amazon Web Services. Which is officially approved by the FBI. ABC just complained. Just checking on that. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. And good work. Councilmember Andrews. Thank you, Mayor. You know, first of all, I think the chief and his staff there, because the fact that, you know, I think I understand that this video recording and the police, you know, action is enriching the county and it's good for the you know, for our police officers also, because I think this is the direction in which, you know, they're going. And we see a lot of improvements in it, you know, not only for our police department, but we have community also. And I still think that we need that, you know, the track, the cars to see how much we you know, we can, you know, to be sure that it is affordable so we can move forward citywide. Because I heard the chiefs said there's a certain amount, but it could cost more. So I think that's why I think it's important that we maybe, you know, we should do some tracking of it to find out, you know, the cost of this because it could be excessive. But, you know, they are intensive public records requested by many cities. They're receiving from body camera footage. So I'd like to make sure that we are ahead of all of this. And I want to thank you guys for the hard work you've done. And I hope it be very successful because I know it will be. Thank you. Thank you. With that, we are going to go ahead and take a vote. I want to just say a couple brief comments. The first is I want to thank our police department and our Police Officers Association for working on this together. Mean, this has been a project that we've all been working on for probably about a year just to get this pilot project ready. And I want to reinforce something that the chief said is that this is about getting this right. It's getting it it's getting it done the right way. We're going to pilot this in a way that really maximizes the success of the program. And we're really proud of the fact that we're rolling this down a way that's responsible. It's going to ensure that our rank and file employees were a part of the process. In fact, something that wasn't mentioned by the chief. But our police officers union and the police department had multiple committees assigned just to this project that have been meeting over the course of a year to prepare for for this vote and for this rollout of this pilot program. So it's been an extensive conversation. This is a national conversation that's going on. And I want to thank all the rank and file members that participated in this. It's our expectation that we roll out the best the best body camera program in the country, and that we do it in a way that's respectful to the officers that are wearing the cameras. But it also is of protects the public and that we're ensuring that we're being as transparent as possible. And so I think all of that is what's happening as part of this program. So I want to thank the chief and the team for doing that. Let me do public comment on this before we go to a vote. Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor. My name's Gary Shelton. I just. I have no objections to this at all. I'm. I'm anticipating that it's going to pass with. With flying colors, and that's a good thing. I wanted to underscore some points that were made in response to questions, particularly from Councilmember Price and Mongo in regard to the well, it boiled down to the problem that this is going to solve. And I think if we look back into recent history, going a year or two back from now, a problem was identified in the county that people didn't really understand how in the world they were going to find out what happened in the event of a police and citizen altercation of some kind. How we would get that information. And so body cameras were to were thought up in the general public as a way that that information would be brought to us. But I think it's really important that we understand that in order to get that information, especially in the context of a criminal case that might be underway, would require either the city's deciding to release the the information, the videos, or through a public records request, which may or may not be a successful way to get that out there. So what it boils down to is that we need as a community to continue our vigilance and no aspersions at all . The police department, I count those folks over there in uniform as friends as well as you folks here at the dais. But it's going to take the continued vigilance of the community to be certain that we know on a in a real time basis what has occurred. When police force is used and the body cam in Los Angeles is going to be used as a tool for the officer to assist him in writing his report. And beyond that, I don't know what they're going to do with it there. And so I wonder if that that wasn't mentioned as a primary use for the body cam footage in Long Beach, but that's what they're planning to do in Los Angeles. So any other information you might be able to impart or elicit from the staff would be so much appreciated. But again, community vigilance is all important. Thank you. Please come forward. Marvin Cummings in my name. I'm a resident of Long Beach, and I'm sitting in this audience and I say, Who's representing the taxpayers here? What is this, a joke? I can't believe what I'm hearing. I can't believe you're talking about Susie Price. She says, How much are we paying for service to the cloud? And she can't get an answer. He is spending $210,000. What are you getting fired? 50 cameras. You can buy a camera for $300 a piece. Service to the cloud. An average price is $50 a month. Los Angeles is playing well with something that's $85 a month. There's all kinds of prices. $50 a month. Service to the cloud would be a reasonable price for 50 cameras. That would be $30,000 a year for 50 cameras. So now we get $45,000. You're talking money for training. This is a digital camera is nothing to this. It's very simple. The trip we train. The train is it's easy to do. Yeah. You may have some software, you may have some issues, but I think so. You get a year contract on 50 cameras at it. You're talking $4,000 a camera. This is a disgrace. And you and somebody said, what do we need a city council for? Well, where is the where's the city manager on these purchasing? Since when do you write out a check for $210,000 and you don't know what it's going for? I think that what you're going to see I happen to be in the business. I don't I'm not here to sell my product. I came late for the game because frankly, when you people started, we weren't in the business. But what has happened in body cameras is the early people in who did business with certain people who wanted the publicity. What happened to them is other people came in and a better technology had better prices, which is very common in the tech field. Your technology is not so bad. There's better, there's worse. But the pricing is open ended. And to me, the taxpayers are getting raked over the coals here. Your check for $210,000. I call up the clerk's department. There is no there's no details. There's nothing. They don't have any details. It's one package deal and it's poor business. Private business does not operate in this fashion for $210,000. You should know what you're paying for. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Next speaker, please. Todd Stout. I'm just curious, you know, with all the technology companies in California, why are we doing business at taxes? I mean, you know, that's a heck of a rivalry going here. Texas and California round rocks doing better in some of our. So Toyota figured they had move there. That was one question. And the other question is the the 50 camels will be divided between the different shifts. It's going to be a shift. I don't know. And hopefully it works. I mean, if it can cut down some of the lawsuits that we've had that have been extremely expensive, you know, that would be wonderful to save some money for a change. I just wonder what the previous gentleman said is, is it a good deal? I don't know. I guess after a year we'll know. But I guess that a lot of people might want to see a breakdown on what the costs are. For each part of this deal. And maybe in the future we can do business in California and employ a few more people here. That's all we see on this council is we need places. We always need more jobs. Well, let's do contracts with California. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Thank you. Surely researching your consultants or group and associates to Chief Luna, I want to take an opportunity to say I have never run into an officer. That threaten me in any way. I've been a resident of Long Beach since 97. When I started working for the homeless, it was your officers who knocked on my motorhome and when I was touring the city and mate to make sure that I was comfortable and letting me know what prospects of danger were in the area. Officers, no matter where they are, you face an affront because of your job. In my religion, the powers that be or ordained of God, what you are doing and your officers has been ordained for the time that we're in. Of course, in every institution, be it religious or non religious, we're going to have people who work for us who may be not be worth their salt or may be shifting in some way or another. But as a personal person standing here today, I think it's important that I say to you and your officers, you have a prayer coming from some people in this city because of the work that you have to do. May you have the grace to be cognizant and aware of those people who are serving under you, who may need some additional training, may need an additional word of encouragement, or may need to maybe step back in their own personal view as they execute their authority in the city. But thank you and thank you, and God bless you for what you're having to do. My former husband was a battalion chief with the city department in Los Angeles. And on his deathbed. His concerns were and all the fire department and police department are two different serving capacities. He was troubled about the internal issues going on in the department of which he served. That was something that the public could not handle. It was things that he could not discuss. But as being a battalion chief, you understand what kind of pressure there is internal. My prayer for you is that you're able to sort out those internal issues so that your officers who serve under you are able to find the grace to come on to their duty every day with a smile and and and an encouragement to serve in their capacity. Thank you for what you're doing. And I might not be there on Saturday, but I am aware and you have many people praying for you and your officers in this city more than who are complaining. Please know that tonight. Thank you. Please come forward. Amir Garcia, City Councilmembers. My name is Robert McNamara. I'm the CEO of Utility. We were the partner with Dell working on the body worn cameras of swimming. This is approved this evening. I just want to let you to come here in person. Let you know that our company is committed to your success. We're very thrilled to be working with Chief Luna and his staff, and our company is committed to the. Success, and we'll do everything. Possible to make it work for the city of Long Beach. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Goodhew any other public speakers? Kay. Mr. King. He'll be the last speaker then. Go ahead. Very good. Hugh Clark, as he. I support the concept. A couple of different issues. In response to the question from Councilwoman Price, the good Lieutenant Barron referenced. We're going to be checking with LA's D.A. or I wasn't sure if it's L.A., L.A. City or L.A. County D.A. if it's the L.A. County D.A., of course, they are now under they're in a situation which Long Beach will be in probably four months from now, i.e. under federal purview. I'd be comfortable getting information from them more so than maybe from it from the city of L.A. second or thirdly, I think it would be a good idea if we can develop it. They have body cameras for each of the council people. And or back in the council, their council chamber. So when they get off and go back there, that the public can keep an eye on them and so forth. In fact, I think there would be no problem funding it. I think the public would fund that instantly and so forth. Thank you. Thank you. Please cast your votes. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Let me. I actually had you know, we didn't have a full list, so I had a short list for public speakers, but I missed. So let me just do I have three people that want to speak to the public and then I'm going to commissions right after that.