DATE: April 27, 2022
TO: Council Infrastructure Committee
FROM: Chief of Police
SUBJECT: Purchase of Axon Fleet 3 Dash Cameras with Auto-Tagging Subscription – Recommendation to Council
RECOMMENDATION
That the Council Infrastructure Committee (CIC) reviews and comments on this report and recommends to Council approval of the purchase of the dash cameras.
SUMMARY
In a continuing effort to broaden transparency, mitigate liability, advance investigative capabilities, and improve crime solvability, the Hayward Police Department is recommending purchasing and installing Axon Dash/Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) cameras in all of its fifty-three patrol vehicles.
BACKGROUND
In 2014, the Hayward Police Department (HPD) purchased ALPR cameras for its patrol fleet. These systems from Motorola Solutions consisted of four externally mounted cameras (two forward facing and two rearward facing), which were attached to the roofs of two patrol vehicles. These cameras were only capable of capturing license plate data and as of 2021, they reached the end of their serviceable lifespan. During their operational years, the ALPR camera systems averaged over a million-license plate reads annually.
While in fiscal year 2019, $150,000 was budgeted into the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) budget to purchase dash cameras for HPD’s patrol vehicles, the project and related funds were suspended due to COVID. Moving forward, dash camera technology has advanced to a point where a single front facing camera can now capture video footage, as well as vehicle license plate information.
DISCUSSION
HPD began its Body Worn Camera (BWC) program in 2015. BWCs have proven to be an invaluable tool for law enforcement in documenting interactions with the community, investigating and prosecuting criminal behavior, and providing litigation protection for the City. Some limitation of BWCs however are their inability to provide a stable overview of an incident, and based on the BWCs positioning on officers (upper chest area), they are unable to capture officers’ observations while they are driving their patrol vehicles. They are also prone to potential non-activation by an officer in dynamic, high-stress critical incidents.
The Axon Fleet 3 system is made up of a front facing dual-view camera, which has the ability to both record video footage as well as license plate information simultaneously. In addition, a second infrared camera is positioned inside the passenger compartment of the patrol vehicle to provide coverage of the prisoner transport area. The camera system for video footage can be activated manually, or by up to ten triggering events such as activation of emergency lights, unlocking of less lethal or lethal weapons from the vehicle, reaching a certain vehicle speed, or upon the recognition that a collision has occurred. In addition, Fleet 3 cameras can be paired with officers current BWCs to allow their BWCs to be automatically activated upon the activation of the Fleet 3 cameras.
Videos and license plate information, captured by the system, is wirelessly uploaded into Axon’s cloud-based storage accessed through “Evidence.com.” This is the same platform that is currently used to store and manage BWC videos and is Criminal Justice Information Service (CJIS) certified. To receive this certification Axon must adhere to the FBI’s CJIS security policy, which provides a set of security requirements to protect and safeguard Criminal Justice Information used by law enforcement.
The data captured in an ALPR scan, and stored by Axon, contains a picture of the license plate, the date and time of the scan, and the GPS location of the scan. No personally identifiable information is captured with the ALPR scan or stored in the database.
The ALPR camera not only records a vehicle’s location, but can also alert officers, in real time, if a scanned license plate has an associated want for the vehicle. This includes sex registrant information, statewide alerts such as “Amber Alerts” for abducted or endangered children, missing persons, stolen vehicles, stolen license plates, and suspect vehicles in felony crimes.
Axon has not built out the capability to grant access to ALPR data to other Law Enforcement Axon customers. If capability is created in the future, HPD will have to grant each individual agency permission to do so via a memorandum of understanding (MOU). Axon does not grant access to any unauthorized third parties. Pursuant to California Government Code Section 3, Chapter 17.25 (commencing with Section 7284), federal, state, or local law enforcement agencies shall not use any non-criminal history information contained within the database for immigration enforcement purposes.
The records retention period of the scanned license plates is customizable through Axon. HPD currently retains license plate data for one year, unless the data is evidentiary in a criminal or civil action, as outlined in HPD’s ALPR Policy #429 (Attachment III).
On April 11, 2022, this proposal was brought before the Chief’s Advisory Panel (CAP) for review and input. While there was overall support for the implementation of the program, the two areas of concern dealt with security and sharing of data. Those concerns were addressed by providing the CAP with the information sharing and security measures outlined in this Staff Report.
In addition to the Fleet 3 camera system, staff also recommends the purchase of an Auto-Tagging subscription for each officer. Currently, officers are required to label each one of their BWC recordings. The labeling process includes inputting an incident or report number, a “Title” for the recording, such as a crime type or type of call for service, and a retention period based on the recordings content. With the purchase of the Fleet 3 cameras, this would require officers to label two separate videos if both their Fleet 3 camera and BWC were used for an event. This is not only time consuming but leads to the potential of one of the videos being mislabeled. Auto-Tagging syncs Evidence.com with HPD’s Computer Aided Dispatch system to auto populate the incident or report number and category.
FISCAL IMPACT
As with the BWC agreement HPD signed with AXON in 2021, Axon spreads out the cost of the equipment and services over a five-year period. During this five-year period all hardware components supplied are warrantied, and at the conclusion of contract, through Axon’s Technology Assurance Plan, all hardware components are upgraded and replaced at no cost. The annual costs, listed below, includes installation services for all fifty-three vehicles.
Payment
Fleet 3
Auto-Tagging
Tax
Total
Year 1
125,928
23,328
7,847.51
157,103.51
Year 2
125,928
23,328
7,847.51
157,103.51
Year 3
125,928
23,328
7,847.51
157,103.51
Year 4
125,928
23,328
7,847.51
157,103.51
Year 5
125,928
23,328
7,847.51
157,103.51
Total
629,640
116,640
39,237.55
785,517.55
Funding has been secured via the CIP to cover nearly all the costs associated with year one of the agreement. Moving forward, HPD will request funding in the CIP to cover the remaining four years of the agreement (FY’s 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026).
NEXT STEPS
If approved by the CIC, the item will go before Council for consideration and full approval.
Prepared by: David Dorn, Lieutenant
Recommended by: William Deplitch, Captain
Toney Chaplin, Chief of Police
Approved by:
________________________________________
Kelly McAdoo, City Manager