CITY OF SIGNAL HILL
STAFF REPORT
2175 Cherry Avenue • Signal
Hill, California 90755-3799
6/13/2023
AGENDA ITEM
TO: HONARABLE MAYOR
AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL
FROM: CARLO TOMAINO
CITY MANAGER
BY: KELLI CRIGLER
ACTING CAPTAIN
SUBJECT:
CONTRACT SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH AXON ENTERPRISE, INC. (AXON) Summary:
The City Council will consider entering into a new Contract Services Agreement with Axon for new body worn cameras, in-car cameras, and a cloud-based evidence storage system in the amount of $453,594.86, for a 5-year term, in a form approved by the City Attorney. Axon has been deployed by more major cities than any other police body camera system and is the industry standard at this time.
Subject to the City Council’s approval of the proposed contract, Axon would roll out the cloud-based evidence storage system this summer. Deployment of body worn cameras would take place by September 2023 while the in-car camera would be deployed by spring 2024.
Recommendation:
Authorize the City Manager to enter into a Contract Services Agreement with Axon for body worn cameras, in-car cameras, and cloud-based evidence storage in the amount of $453,594.86, for a 5- year term, in a form approved by the City Attorney.
Fiscal Impact:
The total cost of the contract is $453,594.86, consisting of $311,341.00 for the body worn cameras and $142,253.86 for in-car cameras. Sufficient funds have been included in the proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2023-2024 budget within the Police Department operating budget (Account No. 100-72-5842), under the Police Radio/System Reserve (118).
Strategic Plan Objective:
Goal No. 2: Ensure public safety is a high priority.
Goal No. 6: Promote a transparent and open government.
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Background:
In 2015, the Signal Hill Police Department became the first law enforcement agency in Los Angeles County to deploy body worn cameras. This first body worn camera system at that time was Watchguard and had a lifespan of 5 years. In-car cameras provided by Data 911 have been in place for over 20 years. In 2020, the Police Department had both body worn and in-car cameras replaced with the Data 911 system.
Since its inception, there have been numerous issues and discrepancies with the operation of the Data 911 system. This includes video footage being mislabeled; improperly attached to other Officers’ videos; and often difficult for Officers to locate and properly book into evidence. Additionally, due to a short warranty period and extensive issues related to camera batteries, nearly all body worn cameras have required replacement as an out-of-warranty cost. Furthermore, the Police Department has not been satisfied with the customer service provided by Data 911. Lastly, the current system does not have a cloud-based solution, requiring all video requested by the District Attorney and Public Defender to be downloaded onto a Compact Disc (CD).
Given the numerous issues the Police Department has experienced with the Data 911 system, staff does not recommend continuing to work with the current provider. Body worn cameras and in-car cameras systems are critical to police operations, investigations, and prosecutions of criminal complaints. The timely replacement of the current hardware with a reliable system is important to the City’s police operations and a key strategic priority for public safety.
Analysis
The Police Department is requesting to implement the Axon system for its new camera and evidence storage system. The Axon system is the current industry standard for body worn cameras, in-car cameras, and evidence storage. Axon has been deployed by more major cities than any other police body camera system. The Signal Hill Police Department currently deploys an Axon Taser, which can integrate with the Axon body state-of-the-art body worn camera system. In a 2022 study conducted by the National Urban Security Technology Laboratory, the Axon body worn camera received the highest overall score for its image stabilization, motion blur mitigation, ease of use and field tagging important for operations, ease of manual activation and deactivation, reliability of activation sensors, and affordability. Several agencies currently deploying Axon cameras in Los Angeles County indicated the multi-mic feature has improved audio and reduced background noise.
Axon uses a cloud-based evidence storage system (evidence.com), which allows management and sharing of evidence digitally with other agencies, including the District Attorney and Public Defender’s offices. This feature would significantly decrease the current time required for staff to complete discovery requests. Members of the community would also be able to share video evidence more easily. For example, currently, when a member of the community has video evidence, an officer will typically provide a flash drive for the evidence to be downloaded. Alternatively, if the file is sent to the officer via email, the video footage must be downloaded onto a CD; the flash drive and/or CD is then booked into evidence. With Axon, the video evidence can be sent digitally and then directly uploaded to the cloud-based storage system. The Los Angeles County District Attorney office currently receives video evidence digitally via Axon’s cloud-based evidence storage from at least 32 law enforcement CITY OF SIGNAL HILL Page 2 of 3 Printed on 6/8/2023
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video evidence digitally via Axon’s cloud-based evidence storage from at least 32 law enforcement agencies and is the preferred method due to its ease of use and security.
Additional benefits include Axon’s 24/7 customer support and its proactive maintenance and replacement of equipment. Over the course of the 5-year agreement, Axon will replace the body worn cameras at the 2 ½ year mark and again at 5 years. This Axon model ensures the Police Department receives the most up-to-date camera systems available at the time. In addition, the camera docking stations will also be replaced and updated on a regular basis to mitigate any syncing, uploading, and charging issues. Replacement of the body worn cameras and the docking stations is included in the contract costs and provides a significant benefit over the current provider.
Under certain circumstances, the City’s Purchasing Policy allows the City to procure services or equipment without going through a formal bidding process. With limited vendor options available within this technology field, the equipment and services provided by Axon were procured as a sole source as this vendor is the only provider of the digital management software and also offers full system integration for the police department.
Subject to the approval of the proposed contract by the City Council, Axon would rollout the cloudbased evidence storage system this summer. Deployment of body worn cameras would take place by September 2023 while the in-car cameras will be deployed by spring 2024.
Reviewed:
_________________________
Sharon del Rosario
Approved:
_________________________
Carlo Tomaino
Attachment:
A. Agreement with Axon
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