September 19, 2023
Police Department
DATE: September 19, 2023
TO: Mayor Martinez and Members of the City Council
FROM:
Bisa French, Chief of Police
Subject:
First Contract Amendment with Flock Group, Inc. to Add
Additional Cameras Throughout the City
FINANCIAL IMPACT: The proposed $405,500 expenditure is included within the approved fiscal year 2023-2024 budget and the
remaining annual charge of $330,000 will be included in future budget proposals – account string 01191021-
400209.
PREVIOUS COUNCIL
ACTION:
February 28, 2023
STATEMENT OF THE
ISSUE:
Based on budget appropriation and approval by City
Council, Richmond Police Department staff is proposing
a contract amendment with Flock Group, Inc. to provide
cameras throughout the City. The City currently
maintains 30 Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR)
cameras and would like to add an additional 70 ALPR
cameras and 40 Pan-Zoom-Tilt cameras at a number of
intersections and at known hot-spots with incidents of
illegal dumping.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
APPROVE a first contract amendment with Flock Group,
Inc. in the amount of $748,500, including a $13,000
contingency, for a new total contract amount not to
exceed $998,100, for additional cameras to be installed and replaced throughout the City, for the term ending
February 28, 2026 – Police Department (Chief Bisa
French 510-621-1802).
AGENDA
REPORT
September 19, 2023
DISCUSSION:
On October 18th, 2022, the Richmond Police Department (RPD) issued a Request for Proposals (“RFP”) seeking quotes from qualified professionals to install approximately 30 stationary Automated License Plate Reader (“ALPR”) camera systems at strategic locations within the City of Richmond. Seven-hundred and ten (710) vendors 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 Group, Inc., and Utility Associates. After thorough research, discussion, and reference checks, the evaluation committee scored Flock Group, Inc. 295 points out of 300. The evaluation committee scored Utility Associates 185 out of a possible 300 points.
On February 28, 2023, the Richmond City Council unanimously authorized the approval of a three-year agreement with Flock Group, Inc. During Flock Group, Inc.’s first round of analysis, it reviewed the City of Richmond’s geographical layout and proposed camera locations to cover significant entry and exit points with considerations including sunlight, efficiency, LTE availability, and potential crime reduction impacts. Following the March 8, 2023 installation, the department has since achieved significant results with various cameras functionality. The cameras have provided greater efficiencies in tracking automobiles involved in crimes, as detailed in the following statistics:
September 19, 2023
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City Council has praised the ALPR cameras serving Richmond and has discussed the possibilities of having the cameras be used for more than just Automated License Plate Reading (ALPR). During the budget presentation on June 6, 2023, the proposed expenditure of $253,500 was added to the Police departments general fund budget. The $253,500 expenditure was to fund 70 additional ALPR cameras, and to maintain the annual expenditure for the 30 ALPR cameras already installed.
On June 20, 2023, City Council reviewed the adoption of the Fiscal Year 2023-2024 budget which included the proposal to add an additional $200,000 expenditure to fund 40 Pan-Tilt-Zoom cameras, the budget was adopted. In total, City Council authorized expenditures by the Richmond Police Department in the amount of $375,000 to fund an additional 110 cameras. To move forward with City Council’s budgetary priorities, RPD staff proposes installing the additional cameras in other high-crime/high-traffic, geographic locations, including those that are currently served by our CCTV cameras.
These cameras have now reached their end of life (the average cost to replace the defunct equipment is about $9,000 to $12,000 per camera). The department wishes to replace the outmoded camera equipment with the new Flock Falcon (CCTV camera) instead, because it can work in conjunction with Flock Safety’s ALPR system. This will create significant investigation efficiencies, allowing officers to more quickly search the digital evidence in the ALPR and CCTV records in one platform.
September 19, 2023
In addition to the ALPR cameras, the Richmond Police Department will also be adding Flock Condor Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) cameras. These cameras offer a wider range of capabilities than the ALPR cameras, including live video, recording, and remote pan-tilt- zoom. This makes them ideal for use in open areas and for enhanced investigative purposes. The Condor PTZ cameras will be used to supplement the ALPR cameras and provide the police department with a more comprehensive view of the city. They can be used to monitor traffic, identify suspects, and gather evidence for investigations.
Condor Falcon PTZ cameras have several benefits including:
Expeditious remote crime deterrence and resolution without hardware inefficiencies or on-site software maintenance issues
o Streamlined operations with a 100 percent cloud-based solution, eliminating the need for servers or IT assistance
Maintenance-free, reliable performance
o Eliminate downtime and reactive fixes with proactive (hardware) health monitoring and maintenance services
All-Inclusive Capabilities
o Enhance safety through a single vendor, including hardware, installation, and cellular data
Remote Pan-Tilt-Zoom Controls
o Get a comprehensive live view during critical incidents with remote PTZ controls
Replacement of current CCTV cameras
o Condor PTZ cameras would replace existing CCTV cameras that require maintenance at the city’s expense and constant monitoring from one central location
September 19, 2023
Flock Group’s Background
Flock Group, Inc. is based in Atlanta, Georgia, with a mission to assist police departments and the communities they serve to reduce crime. Flock Group, Inc. 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 Group, Inc. public safety operating system helps communities and law enforcement professionals in 1,200+ cities work together to eliminate crime, protect privacy, and mitigate bias. It builds 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 and are infrastructure-free. Flock Group, Inc. 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
Group, Inc.’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 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 investigated 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’
September 19, 2023
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 Group, Inc. does not sell the data to any third parties.
Since the Agency owns its data, a limited license grant is required for Flock Group, Inc. to use the data; however, this use is strictly limited to what is necessary for Flock Group, Inc. to provide services.
Criminal Justice Information Services (“CJIS”) footage is stored, secured, and encrypted in AWS Government Cloud and automatically deleted every thirty (30) days on a rolling basis.
Flock Group, Inc. cameras take photos, and there is no live feed. Flock Group, Inc. does not monitor the system and is not used for surveillance. Flock Group, Inc. does not work in any capacity for traffic enforcement, unpaid fines, or speeding violations, nor do we work with any immigration services. Flock Group, Inc. provides an audit trail of searches for accountability purposes.
Seven (7) Homeowner Associations (HOAs) in the City of Richmond currently have Flock Group, Inc. cameras in their communities. Those five (5) HOAs now deploy 27+ Flock Group, Inc. cameras in the City of Richmond. The HOAs have executed a no-cost Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which allows Flock Group, Inc. access to the HOAs’ cameras to assist in the Department’s criminal investigations.
Local law enforcement agencies which use Flock Group, Inc. cameras include Hercules, Vallejo, San Ramon, Fairfield, Danville, Oakley, Vacaville, Benicia, and others throughout the Bay Area. These agencies have also agreed to share their data with
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Richmond PD. Detectives have been actively using Flock Group, Inc. 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 and viewing footage can be done from anywhere – not just in the CCTV room located at the Police Department.
Financial Impact
RPD staff is asking for additional contract funding of $735,500 which will support the addition of 70 Automated License Plate Reader cameras and 40 Pan-Tilt-Zoom cameras. Additionally, RPD staff is asking for a contingency amount of $13,000 to replace damaged camera’s, housing, poles, etc. of Flock Group, Inc. leased equipment ($1,300 is the average cost of replacing a pole and camera).
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
Attachment 1 – Executed Contract
Attachment 2 – FLOCK Contract Amendment Form