City of Oak Creek

Common Council Report

Meeting Date:  12/19/2006

Item No.:        

Recommendation:  That the Common Council approve the purchase of 11 integrated in-car video units to be installed into marked patrol vehicles in the police fleet.  

Background:  In the 2005 budget, the Common Council approved a CEP item for $49,200 for the purchase of in-car video units. In 2005, we monitored a beta site research project by Sun Prairie Police Department regarding in-car video systems. We were quite impressed with their thorough work and waited for their research to be completed before selecting a brand and vendor. We were set at that time to move forward with the Sun Prairie choice of ICOP digital cameras; however, our IT Department expressed a concern that the selection of a unit must be tied to the best storage system for all of the video produced by 10 cameras.  IT was adamant that storage needed to also be centralized with storage of other video produced in-house due to the 2006 Supreme Court mandate that in-custody interviews be recorded. 

We have worked through that issue by utilizing a single server to store all of the video produced by officers in their investigations. The central storage of all this video also makes it much more administratively efficient in handling open records requests of citizens and the needs of the District Attorney.

An additional requirement that IT was wisely making was that the system needed to be as easy as possible for officers to upload video from their squads into the server. IT was adamant that the uploading should be accomplished by wireless means and minimal amount of effort by officers not generally familiar with computer uploading procedures. As a matter of fact, unique to this brand unit, the wireless upload from the squads is actually completed automatically when the squad enters into the garage. Uploading takes approximately 10 minutes and if interrupted the system will pick up again where it left off upon return to the station. No action is required by the officers at all!

The system selected by our department and highly recommended by IT addresses both centralized long-term storage and easy uploading by officers. The system is manufactured by "Integrian" an internationally respected company with a home office in Northbrook, IL. The system is sold through and maintained by BSG Solutions of Milwaukee with the first year of free maintenance. We can decide during this next year if a maintenance agreement is warranted or not. West Allis Police recently purchased 17 in-car video units from this company at a comparable price.

Installing video cameras will improve the quality of policing in the following ways:

• Increased accountability Department wide
• Easier in some cases in quicker resolution of internal investigations
• Protection for victims and the City in sustaining complaints against inappropriate officer’s actions
• Protection for officers, their reputations and those of their families in false claims made against officers
• Identification of training needs
• Recording of pre-events (1 min) post officer-involved accident scenes
• Major increase in ability to collect vital verbal and visual evidence in criminal and DWI prosecutions
• Major increase in ability to collect vital verbal and visual evidence from victims in support of their charges

Attached is a somewhat comparable higher bid from ICOP Digital in 2005 that truly is not a direct comparable as they cannot provide the effortless uploading by means of wireless technology.

The recommended BSG Solutions bid includes the following:

11         Integrated In Car Video Units @ $4,550/ea.                          $50,050

11         Oper.Sys Software License per vehicle @ $325/ea.               $  3,575

40         Leather Transmitter Pouches @ $20/ea.                               $     800

1          Installation @ $300                                                              $     300

1          Wireless Upload @$1,390                                                    $  1,390

1          DP Client Software Suite Installation on Server                       $     750

2          Transmitters @ $150/ea.                                                      $     300

1          DP Client Software License (one time fee)                              $     500

                                                                                    TOTAL        $57,665

The total would equip 11 of the 13 marked squads in our fleet. An additional $9,425 would be needed to equip all squads. Half of this cost could be covered by utilizing or equipping the WE Energies squad with a camera.

Fiscal Impact:  There is $49,200 in 2005 project #05004.  The additional $8,465 would come from $5,440 in remaining funds available in 2007 CEP for the Interview Room Recording System and $3,025 from unused funds from 3 completed projects in #06021.

                                                                  Respectfully submitted,

                                                                  Patrick DeGrave

                                                                  City Administrator

Prepared by:

Thomas P. Bauer

Chief of Police

Review by:

Caesar Geiger

Information Technology

Fiscal Review by:

Beverly A. Buretta, CMC

City Clerk