To: Honorable Mayor and Members of Town Council
Through: David L. Corliss, Town Manager
From: Todd Brown, via Chief Jack Cauley
Title
Resolution Ratifying the Master Services and Purchasing Agreement and the First Amendment Thereto with Axon Enterprise, Inc.; And Approving the 2023 Invoice for the Annual Maintenance Costs Cameras
Body
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Executive Summary
The Castle Rock Police Department is seeking Town Council approval of a resolution (Attachment A) funding the previously approved Axon service agreement (Attachment B) for the department’s Officer Safety Plan. Since the inception of the Axon Body-Worn Cameras (BWC) in 2016, and Fleet Axon Cameras in 2017, the Police Department has utilized these products to build community trust and transparency. The implementation has been built on a defined policy framework with its purposes and goals clearly defined. Law enforcement agencies throughout Colorado have adopted body- worn camera programs as a means to improve evidence collection, to strengthen officer performance and accountability, and to enhance agency transparency.
History of Past Town Council, Boards & Commissions, or Other Discussions
Incidents involving police across the country have created a surge in the use of body cameras for law enforcement. Today, more than 17,000 law enforcement agencies in 100 countries around the world are part of the Axon network, the leading vendor of body worn cameras.
Discussion
In April 2021, the Police Department received the updated quote for our body-worn cameras manufactured by Axon.
• After each use by the officers, the cameras will recharge and upload data to that user's department account.
• Evidence.com is a video management software system and allows users to view their video, redact sensitive information while ensuring the original files are never altered, provides a built-in audit system that tracks the life of a video from creation, editing, viewing, altering, copying, and ultimately deleting.
• With Evidence.com, the industry-leading-cloud-based digital evidence management software, store, streamline, and share all your evidence and Axon device data.
• With Evidence.com's Redaction studio, merging the steps of processing and redacting video for real-time review.
• Leverage your smartphone features for digital evidence management and recording. Capture, tag, and view evidence on a secure platform, all without leaving the scene.
• A public safety portal that invites individual witnesses to submit photos and videos of an incident to your agency. All submissions go straight to Evidence.com where they're instantly categorized and searchable.
• Video files are automatically purged according to agency-defined retention times for file types. There is a buffer system in place where video can be retrieved should someone decide that a deleted video be retained longer (up to 7 days after deletion).
• Axon responds to their customers' requests for changes and updates to their system. All users will automatically receive those software updates when available as part of their contract.
• Axon Body Worn-Cameras allows tagging videos in the field. The tag information that you apply to each video also uploads and can be viewed by anyone with permission to view the evidence.
One of the newest features coming to Axon Body-Worn Cameras is the auto-transcription feature. Video and audio evidence are central to every investigation. But the sheer quantity of this evidence increases the time officers and prosecutors must spend reviewing it, plus it can be mentally draining to listen to disturbing audio or see graphic images repeatedly.
• Axon Auto-Transcribe with Review Assistant and Transcription Assistant allows our agency to transform the way we review and transcribe evidence. No more having to watch every minute of a piece of digital evidence. Simply scan the auto-transcript to quickly survey what happened or search for key words. When it comes time for 100% accuracy, we can quickly produce a court-ready transcript in a fraction of the time and cost required by human transcription.
• Axon Auto-Transcribe uses the power of artificial intelligence (Al) to accelerate the review and transcription of evidence, creating significant time and cost saving benefits for agencies. Instead of audio, text and video as separate elements from an incident, Axon Auto-Transcribe unifies all these elements into one "hypermedia player" enabling powerful connections and efficiencies for public safety agencies. No more having to watch every moment of digital evidence. Instead, users can simply scan the auto- transcript to quickly survey what happened and jump to the significant section by clicking on the spoken words. When it comes time to produce court-ready transcripts, Axon Auto-Transcribe can help produce the transcript in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost of human transcription alone.
• Our agency will receive unlimited access to the Auto-Transcription feature.
The annual maintenance agreement we have utilized for the past five years is referred to as the Officer Safety Plan. This plan provides our agency with Unlimited Axon Device Storage. The plan also includes free replacement of damaged cameras, regardless of cause. The new quote for the officer safety plan is for ten years. The first year’s cost is $255,890.20, years 2 through 10 will be $270,067.50 annually, without a price increase.
This agreement also stipulates we will be provided with new body-worn cameras for all (90) officers every 2.5 years and a new Taser Conducted Electrical Weapon (CEW) every five (5) years for each officer's license. This agreement includes full warranty for all weapons.
The body-worn cameras have Bluetooth compatibility with our Mobile Data Terminals (MDT). This allows officers to view their media on their MDT's within minutes of the recording. This also allows officers to view their recordings while completing their reports ensuring accuracy.
The body-worn cameras will also interface with our Tyler Technologies/ New World Systems, Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) computers. Each time a recording is activated on the body- worn camera, it will synchronize with the date and time of the event listed in CAD. This will automatically bookmark the event with a case or incident number, officer name and call type. The call type is one of the most important factors, because the retention of the media is based on the call type (criminal versus non-criminal). The Axon Body-Worn Cameras also have "Active Signal Technology." This will allow the Body- Worn Cameras to be activated to record simultaneously based on the event triggers (i.e., light bar activation, prisoner door or rifle release, etc.).
Budget Impact
The total budget impact for this yearly service agreement ($270,067.50) is included in the approved 2023 Budget and outlined in the Axon BWC Quotations (Attachment C). The project costs will be applied to cost codes:
• General Supplies, Equipment, Noncapital 110-2110-421.61-14
Proposed Motion
“I move to approve the resolution as introduced by title.”
Attachments
Attachment A: Resolution
Attachment B: Axon Agreement
Attachment C: Axon BWC Quotations