ITEM: 12.3 ADMINISTRATION- Chris Olson, Police Chief
Title
ADDITIONAL MEMORY FOR IN-CAR SQUAD CAMERA SYSTEM
Background
In December of last year, the City Council was given a presentation as to the status of the in-car squad camera system. This new system includes five cameras per squad, wireless microphones for officers, a wireless downloading system of data and a storage system that offers ready access to the data. Since October 3, 2011 when the system went live we have saved almost 5 TB of data. The existing disk storage system has an 8 TB capacity but needs about 40% of that space for the operating system.
We will potentially reach capacity in the near future (recent estimates show November 20, 2012). The five-camera system records a significant amount of data. In addition, data retention procedures require data to be saved anywhere from 30 days and up to six years, depending upon data classification requirements (cases, such as homicides, require indefinite storage). We have reviewed and adjusted recording speeds; we routinely eliminate any recordings not mandated to be retained by the data retention procedure; and, we have made other adjustments which would save recording space without adversely impacting data retention or increase staff time.
It is important that we continue to record activities using our five-camera system in each squad car; the use of in-squad camera systems technology continues to enhance reporting accuracy and completeness, officer training, investigation of officer complaints and overall promotion of unbiased policing. In order to maintain our system and the data as required, we will need to purchase additional disk storage (this will be an add-on to our current system). The additional disk storage offers a recovery system in the event of disk failure. As with the initial purchase of the system, forfeiture dollars were partially utilized. This current purchase will come from forfeiture funds. For the future, we will continue to work with I/S to research and identify memory systems that are cost-effective and leverage the best from the available technology.
This bid for this upgrade comes from Now Micro, which is State contract bid pricing.
1- 12 TB SAN (Storage Area Network) |
$12,415.00 |
(Includes support agreement and |
|
No shipping fees) |
|
Tax |
$853.53 |
Total |
$13,268.53 |
Recommendation
The requested action is pursuant to the Blaine City Charter section 6.05, which requires City Council approval of all purchases or contracts in excess of $10,000.