Title
AUTHORIZATION FOR THE PURCHASE OF SIXTY (60) BODY CAMERAS, FOUR (4) TRANSFER STATIONS, TWENTY-FIVE (25) BODY MOUNTS, AND ONE (1) SOFTWARE LICENSE FOR REDACTIVE/EDITING CAPABILITY FROM WATCH GUARD VIDEO IN THE AMOUNT OF $113,155 FOR THE NORMAN POLICE DEPARTMENT.
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BACKGROUND: PSST funds in the amount of $750,000 were approved in fiscal year 2013-2014 (FYE 2014) for the purchase of an in-car/body worn solution for the police department. These funds were allocated to the Public Safety Sales Tax Fund, Plant & Operating-Audio/Visual System (account 015-6122-421.51-10).
After a Request for Proposal process (RFP #1314-53) in 2014, MediaSolv was selected as the vendor to supply the video systems and a contract was signed with them in February of 2015. After being paid the first two installments of the contract, MediaSolv advised us that they were being purchased by Taser International in May of 2015 and could not supply the cameras specified in the contract. Due to this and the fact that they were purchased by a company that had bid against them in the RFP process, we considered this a breach and started the process to terminate the contract. This contract was terminated and a refund of $259,731.80 from MediaSolv/Taser was reallocated into the Audio/Visual System account.
A new RFP process (RFP #1516-45) was started in January of 2016 to select a new company to supply a video solution for the Police Department. Seven (7) companies responded to the RFP and after scoring the field was narrowed to three for field testing. After field testing, Watch Guard was selected as the best fit for the City of Norman by the evaluation panel. The decision to go with Watch Guard was unanimous among the panel and the field testers. This selection was based on the integration their body camera has with their in-car system, ease of use of the body camera, the kiosk check-out ability, and the quality of the audio and video.
Council approved contract K-1617-84 with Watch Guard on December 13, 2016, which gave us a few in-car systems, several body-worn cameras, a kiosk check-out system, and the ability to download in-car video wirelessly. The idea was to start with these cameras in the field to determine if video data storage that had been purchased would be sufficient.
DISCUSSION: Over the past year, the system and the storage has been being evaluated to determine if the system would work as designed. While we have had some minor issues with the body cameras, we believe they are working exceptionally well overall. The use of the initial storage for the video appears to have leveled out between 15-20 percent of available storage capacity.
This Authorization for Purchase should allow every on-duty officer, even during special events, to have a body-worn camera. We should also be able to maintain this ability even when a few cameras are down for repairs. This order will include 60 body-worn cameras, 4 transfer stations, 25 magnetic chest mounts, another redactive software license, and an extended 3 year warranty for the cameras. The quote from Watch Guard for this purchase is $113,155. Funds for this purchase are available from the original contract encumbered to Watch Guard.
RECOMMENDATION: It is recommended that the City Council approve the purchase of equipment for the body camera project in the amount of $113,155 from Watch Guard Video.