CONSENT CALENDAR
City of San Bernardino
Request for Council Action
Date: March 6, 2024
To: Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
From: Charles A. Montoya, City Manager;
Darren Goodman, Chief of Police
Department: Police
Subject: Agreement with FileOnQ Incorporated, and Issue a Purchase Order (All Wards)
Recommendation:
It is recommended that the Mayor and City Council of the City of San Bernardino, California, authorize:
1. The City Manager or designee to execute a Professional Services Agreement with FileOnQ Incorporated.
2. The Director of Finance and Managment Services to issue a purchase order to FileOnQ Incorporated in an amount not to exceed $253,153.84.
Executive Summary
The Police Department’s evidence cataloging system needs to be upgraded to a digital system.
After an RFP and thorough vetting process, FileOnQ Incorporated was selected to be the service provider. The Police Department has sufficient funding allocated in the budget to purchase this solution.
Background
The police department is in dire need of updating its evidence cataloging system. The current process is antiquated and requires manual inputting of information. This process has caused a significant backlog of evidence that should have been disposed of years ago. Due to this backlog, the evidence room has experienced overcrowding, and available space is becoming scarce in the property room. A digital system will assist in identifying evidence that shall be retained for court proceedings as well as notify technicians when the evidence can be disposed of. If items of evidence are disposed of prematurely, it could cause irreversible issues for future litigation and expose the city to liability.
The current industry standard has transitioned to a digital barcoding system, which will help catalog evidence and assist in setting reminders on evidence that is up for destruction. A digital database would save the man hours of manually inputting data and save on paper needed for evidence tags and evidence disposition forms. On June 21st, 2023, staff issued an RFP requesting proposals from different vendors for a Digital Evidence Management solution for police evidence. The RFP closed on July 12th, 2023, and staff began a thorough vetting process.
Discussion
The RFP process yielded numerous submissions from qualified vendors, each with innovative solutions that appeared to meet the RFP requirements. As a result, the City began a thorough vetting process, which included a Proposal Evaluation Committee being formed to rate each vendor independently.
During the vetting process, staff discovered that some of the vendors did not have prior police agency experience. Some of the products were not specific to property/evidence management, nor was their software compatible with current department infrastructure as required and outlined in the RFP requirements.
The Proposal Evaluation Committee received four competing companies to evaluate, and Carahsoft Technologies didn't receive a passing score. FileOnQ, Inc. received the overall highest passing score out of the remaining three companies, with Tracker Products scoring the 2nd highest and lowest passing score being Foray Technologies.
Through the vetting process, staff identified FileOnQ Inc. as the only vendor that can currently meet the needs of the Department. In addition, FileonQ Inc. has 23 years of experience and provided data about the police department, showing better knowledge of the City and Department needs. The vendor also provided a comprehensive list showing several California agencies that use their software, including a customer with the same LERMS (Law Enforcement Records Management System) as the San Bernardino Police Department.
Lastly, FileOnQ Inc. provides unlimited phone and online support, unlimited training, and hardware lifetime replacement.
FileOnQ Inc.'s initial startup cost is slightly higher than that of Tracker Products. However, its annual maintenance is considerably less than Tracker Products.
Although Foray Technologies is the least expensive option, the evaluation process revealed several concerning issues from their company, such as "purchase of additional services for customized configuration and training may be necessary," which they were unable to explain to us what a customized configuration is or even how much additional money that may cost.
This is something that they wouldn’t be able to determine until after they started performing services for the Department once an agreement has been executed. They also have no local experience. Their existing contracts were specific to the needs of a crime lab, which is not equivalent to the needs of the San Bernardino Police Department's evidence room. Moreover, their interface explanation lacked detail and didn't convince the committee how it would integrate with our current LERMS.
The following table depicts the costs associated with the different vendor’s Digital Evidence Management solutions:
Vendor Cost Annual Maintenance
Tracker Products $90,407.60 $55,500
Foray Tech. $103,660.50 $16,434.84- $17,958.81
FileOnQ, Inc. $130,898.89 $27,550
Carahsoft Tech. $374,473.79 Not clear in proposal
The following table depicts the cost associated with the top 3 vendors and costs associated with yearly maintenance and total investment over five years.
Vendor 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 Total
Tracker $90,407.60 $55,500.00 $55,500.00 $55,500.00 $55,500.00 $312,407.60 Foray $103,660.50 $16,434.84 $16,927.89 $17,434.74 $17,958.81 $172,417.78 FileOnQ $130,898.89 $27,550.00 $27,550.00 $27,550.00 $27,550.00 $241,098.89 Staff requests the issuance of a purchase order to FileOnQ, Inc. in an amount not to exceed $253,153.84. The amount requested includes a five percent contingency to cover any unforeseen expenses.
2021-2025 Strategic Targets and Goals
This contract for FileOnQ services aligns with Key Target No. 3c: Improved Quality of Life - constantly evaluate public safety service delivery models to enhance the quality of service.
Fiscal Impact
The financial impact to the City is the expenditure of $253,153.84 from the general fund. There is sufficient funding in the adopted FY 2023/2024 budget to cover this expenditure.
Conclusion
It is recommended that the Mayor and City Council of the City of San Bernardino, California, authorize:
1. The City Manager or designee to execute a Professional Services Agreement with FileOnQ Incorporated.
2. The Director of Finance and Management Services to issue a purchase order to FileOnQ Incorporated in an amount not to exceed $253,153.84.
Attachments
Attachment 1 Professional Services Agreement
Attachment 2 Final FileOnQ, Inc. Quote
Ward:
All Wards
Synopsis of Previous Council Actions:
None