February 28, 2023
Police Department
DATE: February 28, 2023
TO: Mayor Martinez and Members of the City Council
FROM:
Bisa French, Chief of Police
Timothy Simmons, Assistant Chief of Police
Subject:
Three-year Agreement with Flock Group, Inc.
FINANCIAL IMPACT: The proposed Agreement will not exceed $249,600 over three years; the expenditures for the project will derive entirely from the RPD’s general fund and will be made
possible after transferring funds due to vacancy cost
savings; $92,600 will be expended by June 30, 2023, and a payment of $78,500 will occur in years two and three - Account String 01191021-400209.
PREVIOUS COUNCIL
ACTION:
None.
STATEMENT OF THE
ISSUE:
The Richmond Police Department (RPD) wishes to
designate a vendor to acquire, support, and maintain a
Fixed Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) System.
After conducting a competitive and rigorous selection
process, Flock Group, Inc. has been identified as the
police department's preferred choice for a reliable and efficient solution.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
APPROVE a three-year agreement with Flock Group,
Inc. for the acquisition, support, and maintenance of a Fixed Automated License Plate Reader System, in an
amount not to exceed $249,600, for a term beginning
March 1, 2023 through February 28, 2026, and with two
one-year renewal options based on the same terms -
Police Department (Chief Bisa French 510-621-1802).
AGENDA
REPORT
February 28, 2023
This item was continued from the February 21, 2023,
meeting.
DISCUSSION:
On October 18th, 2022, the Richmond Police Department (RPD) issued a Request for Proposals (“RFP”) seeking proposals from qualified professionals to install about 30 stationary Automated License Plate Reader (“ALPR”) camera systems at strategic locations within the city of Richmond. 710 were notified, and four (4) submitted proposals before the deadline of December 9, 2022. Two (2) of the bids received did not meet the RFP requirements (one submitted a letter of intent, and the other was above the budgeted amount of $100,000/year). RPD staff met with the two remaining vendors, Flock Safety and Utility Associates. After thorough research, discussion, and reference checks, the evaluation committee gave Flock Safety 295 points out of 300.
The evaluation committee scored Utility Associates 185 out of a possible 300 points.
Flock Group, Inc. dba Flock Safety is based in Atlanta, Georgia, with a mission to assist police departments and the communities they serve to reduce crime. Flock Safety camera systems are in over 1,200 cities in 38 states and 600 police departments across the country including a number of Bay Area cities.
Flock is a public safety operating system that helps communities and law enforcement professionals in 1,200+ cities work together to eliminate crime, protect privacy, and mitigate bias. They build devices that capture objective evidence and use machine learning to detect, decode, and deliver unbiased investigative leads to law enforcement.
Their proprietary devices are solar powered, utilizing cloud-based software, are infrastructure-free, and assist in reducing crime. Flock Safety Automatic License Plate Reading cameras have unique and proprietary machine learning technology that detects the movement of a vehicle, allowing the camera to capture distinguishing features, shapes, sizes, and other tangible and
significant features that would help detectives
solve a crime. Flock Safety’s software platform is
web-based and user-friendly, allowing detectives
to search the database based on dates, times,
regions, vague vehicle descriptions, license
plates, bumper stickers, roof racks, and many
more unique features besides the license plate.
The use of ALPR technology has rapidly spread
in neighboring communities and around the
nation. The hope is that such a system, along with other enforcement efforts, will contribute to investigative efficacy and efficiency. The technology could assist in
February 28, 2023
clearing crimes while minimizing a policing footprint. By knowing which vehicle is involved in criminal activity, efforts can be focused on that specific vehicle to develop investigative leads and to further support RPD’s intent to focus on intelligence led deployment. Intelligence led strategies require timely and data driven technology. ALPR technology could provide that information and help mitigate the number of investigate vehicle stops. Most importantly, this technology automates a time consuming, manual process that officers routinely complete during their daily operations. It significantly improves effectiveness in identifying vehicles of interest among the hundreds or thousands observed during routine patrol. Without ALPRs, officers are not easily able to determine if a particular plate is associated with a stolen car or a particular crime or warrant. However, with the ALPRs, the system will alert the officer of a finding on a particular car as soon as the plate is scanned entering or leaving the city.
Not only is this system more efficient, but it frees up officers’ time for other duties, including routine patrol in the rest of the city and/or special assignments. This is particularly important during times of high call volumes. In addition to freeing up officers’ time, ALPR can improve officer safety by providing critical information regarding the nature of the identified offense in advance of the officer contacting the occupant(s) of the vehicle.
Just as importantly, ALPR can generate a record of vehicle sightings, complete with time, date, and geographic location information for each observation, which may bolster other evidence, including eyewitness testimony, in a criminal proceeding. The system uses the retained data and has analytical tools to assist officers and investigators in intelligence gathering and crime solving. This data can substantially enhance RPD’s investigative capabilities.
To ensure operational use is limited to concrete investigative need, current RPD policy clearly outlines the permitted/impermissible use criteria. For example, no information will be shared with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for immigration investigations or immigration enforcement. Additionally, Flock has several safeguards to protect privacy including:
A focus on objective evidence: vehicles and license plates. Flock captures car features (make, model, color, license plate, state of the plate, and timestamp) and do not record any personally identifiable information such as names, addresses, or phone numbers.
Flock does not use facial recognition technology of any kind. Agencies own their data entirely. Flock Safety does not sell the data to any third parties.
Since the Agency owns its data, a limited license grant is required for Flock Safety to use the data; however, this use is strictly limited to what is necessary for Flock Safety to provide services.
Criminal Justice Information Services (“CJIS”) footage is stored, secured, and encrypted in AWS Government Cloud and automatically deleted every thirty (30)
February 28, 2023
days on a rolling basis. Flock’s Privacy Policy can be found at https://www.flocksafety.com/privacy-policy/
Flock Safety cameras take photos, and there is no live feed. Flock Safety does not monitor the system and is not used for surveillance. Flock Safety does not work in any capacity for traffic enforcement, unpaid fines, or speeding violations, nor do we work with any immigration services. Flock Safety provides an audit trail of searches for accountability purposes.
Seven (7) Homeowner Associations (HOAs) in the City of Richmond currently have Flock Safety cameras in their communities. Those five (5) HOA’s now deploy 27+ Flock Safety cameras in the City of Richmond. We have been provided a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for Flock Safety to immediately receive access to those HOA’s cameras to assist in our criminal investigations. This is at no cost to us. Local law enforcement agencies use Flock Safety cameras to include Hercules, Vallejo. San Ramon, Fairfield, Danville, Oakley, Vacaville, Benicia, and others throughout the Bay Area. Those agencies have also agreed to an MOU to share their camera access with Richmond PD. Detectives have been actively using Flock Safety during their investigations, and the findings have led to successful convictions.
Flock will provide the cameras and software under a subscription model that will include the hardware, hardware maintenance, software, software updates, LTE connectivity, solar panels, mounting poles, mounting equipment, and monitoring. The cameras and software can support unlimited users that the designated administrator will easily manage.
Flock Safety has reviewed the City of Richmond’s geographical layout. It has proposed camera locations to cover the significant entry and exit points considering the sunlight, efficiency, LTE availability, and potential impact of reducing crime.
The anticipated expenditure will be $92,600 for the first year and $78,500 for the following years and will come from RPD’s general fund. This will be made possible by transferring cost savings realized in salaries and benefits due to sworn vacancies.
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
Attachment 1 – Original Contract
Attachment 2 – RFP
Attachment 3 – RFP Rating Matrix