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CC - FOUR-FIFTHS VOTE REQUIREMENT (Budget Amendment and Waiver of Bid Procedures Only) - (1) Pursuant to Culver City Municipal Code Section 3.07.075(E)(3), Waiver of Formal Competitive Bidding Procedures; (2) Approval of a Five-Year Professional Services Agreement with Vigilant Solutions to Provide an Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) System in an amount not to exceed $443,500; (3) Authorization to the City Manager to Approve Further Amendment(s) to the Agreement in Additional Amount(s) Not-to-Exceed $88,700; (4) Approval of $30,000 to be Appropriated for Electrical Requirements at the Traffic Signal Power Boxes; and (5) Approval of a Budget Amendment to Appropriate $357,200 from the General Fund Reserve to Departmental Special Equipment (10140200.732120) for a Not-to-Exceed ALPR System Project Amount of $562,200.
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Meeting Date: January 8, 2018
Contact Person/Dept: Capt. Sam Agaiby/Police Department
Phone Number: (310) 253-6394
Fiscal Impact: Yes [X] No [] General Fund: Yes [X] No []
Public Hearing: [] Action Item: [X] Attachments: [X]
Commission Action Required: Yes [] No []
Public Notification: (E-Mail) Meetings and Agendas - City Council (01/03/2018);
Department Approval: Police Chief Scott Bixby (12/21/17)
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RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends the City Council: (1) pursuant to Culver City Municipal Code Section 3.07.075(E)(3), waiver of formal competitive bidding procedures (four-fifths vote requirement); (2) approve a five-year professional services agreement with Vigilant Solutions to provide an automated license plate recognition (ALPR) system in an amount not to exceed $443,500; (4) authorize the City Manager to approve further amendment(s) to the agreement in additional amount(s) not-to-exceed $88,700; (4) approve $30,000 to be appropriated for electrical requirements at the Traffic Signal power boxes; and (5) approval of a budget amendment (four-fifths vote requirement) to appropriate $357,200 from the General Fund Reserve to Departmental Special Equipment (10140200.732120) for a not-to-exceed ALPR system project amount of $562,200.
BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION
The presence of community cameras and license plate readers in public areas has been a growing trend in the United States. Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) technology has proven to be an efficient way for law enforcement to generate investigative leads and locate suspects, helping to preserve and enhance safety in the community. These fixed cameras, for the most part, only capture and read license plates that travel on the City’s public roadways.
An ALPR system consists of two components. The first component is the physical hardware (cameras, servers, routers, electrical capability, etc.). The second component is the software running the analytics of the information captured from the cameras.
Fixed ALPRs, placed at strategic locations, scan the license plates of passing vehicles; the plate information is then automatically checked against a database for existing unresolved violations, wants/warrants, etc. Dispatch then receives an immediate alert of any reported stolen vehicle passing through a covered intersection, as well as vehicles listed as “wanted” in connection with crimes, missing persons, arrest warrants associated with a vehicle, and stolen license plates. Detectives also have access to the license plate database to assist them in developing leads in unsolved criminal investigations.
The Police Department currently has a mobile ALPR system on some of its vehicles. These cameras and associated software have proven to be valuable in identifying stolen/wanted vehicles and greatly assisting in follow-up investigations for all crimes. The camera system on the police vehicles is outdated, out of warranty/service contract and is in need of an upgraded system. The software the Police Department currently utilizes is older software that is not running the most up-to-date, robust, or optimized analytics.
Police Department staff researched potential vendors to supply a completely new hardware and software solution for the Department’s implementation. Staff looked for cutting edge technology related to the hardware and sought the most robust software to run the most comprehensive analytics. Police Department staff also confirmed that most of the surrounding agencies are utilizing Vigilant ALPR’s.
PRIVACY & SECURITY OF INFORMATION
Vigilant Solutions maintains strict control to ensure data security and privacy. The only way to link personally identifiable information like name or address is to obtain access to the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles database. That access is currently restricted by federal law via the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (DPPA 1994), and carries stiff fines and federal prison penalties for any violation.
The LPR data is stored on secured servers in Virginia. The provider hosts many Fortune 500 and government servers and provides redundant power sources, redundant fiber connectivity, redundant disk arrays, environmental monitoring, secure access control, physical escort for onsite visitors, multiple diesel fuel backup generators, active fire prevention and suppression, and onsite system administration and engineers.
Only credentialed law enforcement officers with a valid Originating Agency Identifier (ORI) number issued by the Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) may access the data on the hosted server. Vigilant is compliant with all relevant requirements set forth in the FBI-CJIS Security Policy.
DISCUSSION
There are several different vendors that offer ALPR systems to law enforcement agencies. In choosing an ALPR system for the Department, information access and sharing is a vital component as this has proven to be a powerful investigative tool. Staff has found that the ALPR system from Vigilant Solutions will accomplish this and more.
Staff has confirmed that the California Highway Patrol (CHP), the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD), the Long Beach Police Department (LBPD), and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) have all become clients of Vigilant Solutions. These are 4 of the 5 largest agencies in the Los Angeles County region. In addition, the cities of Downey, Burbank, West Covina, Glendora, Bell, Whittier, South Gate, Bell Gardens, Azusa, Monrovia, Montebello, Chino, La Verne, Claremont, Palos Verdes Estates (PVE), Rancho Palos Verdes (RPV), Rolling Hills (RH), Rolling Hills Estates (RHE), Beverly Hills, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Gardena, Hawthorne, and Torrance have all transitioned to Vigilant Solutions as well. Other surrounding cities are in current negotiations.
It is the goal of the Culver City Police Department to stay current with industry standards in technology and provide the community with excellent police services. Additionally, it is imperative that the Culver City Police Department is on the same platform with surrounding agencies, in order to share information and in turn receive information to assist in the apprehension of offenders.
In addition to allowing access and data sharing with other law enforcement agencies regionally, statewide, and nationally, Vigilant Solutions is the only vendor that has access to a large national commercial database (Digital Recognition Network - DRN, having over 5 Billion detections). This database gathers information from applications such as access control sites, tolls, and asset recovery agencies.
Vigilant Solutions uses the most up to date and robust software available. With this software, the user has the capability to run very comprehensive analytics, turning data into actionable intelligence for thorough and successful follow-up investigations.
Staff recommends that this purchase be considered sole source (access to a large national commercial database (Digital Recognition Network - DRN, having over 5 Billion detections) and that a contract be awarded to Vigilant Solutions for the following reasons:
• Vigilant Solutions is becoming the ALPR industry standard for local and regional law enforcement agencies in our area
• Vigilant Solutions has proprietary access to local, regional, and nationwide Law Enforcement data bases
• Vigilant Solutions has Proprietary access to a large nationwide commercial database
• Vigilant Solutions has proprietary software that runs cutting edge analytics
• Vigilant Solutions has the most experience implementing and maintaining ALPR systems in a vendor-hosted environment
• Vigilant Solutions is the only vendor that will allow local agencies to be on the same information and data sharing platform
The initial project was budgeted for the following intersections with a total of 14 fixed ALPR cameras:
• Eastbound Slauson Avenue at Buckingham Parkway (3 Cameras)
• Eastbound Centinela Avenue at Green Valley Circle (2 Cameras)
• Eastbound Jefferson Boulevard at Hetzler Road (2 Cameras)
• Eastbound Washington Boulevard at La Cienega Boulevard (2 Cameras)
• Westbound Jefferson Boulevard at Slauson Avenue (2 Cameras)
• Southbound Sepulveda Boulevard at Green Valley Circle (3 Cameras)
After careful consideration and with the success of surrounding agencies in solving crime with this system, staff is requesting to expand this project with an additional 13 fixed ALPR cameras to maximize its usefulness.
The additional cameras would provide coverage for the following intersections:
• Westbound Culver Boulevard at Sepulveda Boulevard (3 Cameras)
• Westbound Braddock Drive at Sawtelle Boulevard (1 Camera)
• Eastbound National Boulevard at Eastham Drive (2 Cameras)
• Eastbound Higuera Street at Eastham Drive (1 Camera)
• Northbound Overland Avenue at Washington Boulevard (2 Cameras)
• Southbound Sawtelle Boulevard at Culver Boulevard (2 Cameras)
• Northbound Sawtelle Boulevard at Matteson Street (2 Cameras)
Staff will coordinate with the Public Works Department to ensure that the work performed on the City’s traffic signals meets required standards and is completed properly. Upon completion of this project, in addition to the benefits presented previously in this report, the Project appears to be capable of feeding real-time date/time stamp, license plates numbers, and locations to Public Works’ upcoming grant-funded Arterial Performance Measures project.
This added benefit may be able to contribute towards furthering the City Council’s adopted Strategic Plan Goal 3, to “improve transportation, circulation, and reduce traffic congestion.” On the corridors where the Police Department Project will have LPR camera installations, the Vigilant equipment can also provide potentially useful data to the Traffic Performance Measures project. The cameras will register license plates of vehicles entering the City at each of the 6 proposed intersections, and then register them again at the point of exiting the City at another one of the 6 intersections, with a reported 90% accuracy. Public Works will write the bid specification for their Arterial Performance Measures project to require that this data be received from the Vigilant system on a real-time basis, and processed to provide pass-through traffic volume and the percentage of pass-through traffic represented in the overall traffic volume on the monitored corridor/location, as well as calculate travel-time.
The LPR equipment will complement data received from Arterial Performance Measures project. The Public Works Department would pay Vigilant to expand the scope of the Project to integrate the above data if it is low, as expected. This cost is not known at this time, but it is anticipated that it will be nominal.
FISCAL ANALYSIS
The City Council Adopted Fiscal Year 2017/18 budget includes $205,000 for a Fixed Automated License Plate Recognition System; $20,000 from the General Fund (10140200.517100) and $185,000 from the Asset Seizure Fund (41640454.732150). After careful consideration and with the success of surrounding agencies in solving crime with this system, staff is requesting to expand this project with an additional 13 fixed ALPR cameras to maximize its usefulness. The additional request of $357,200 will allow the program to be expanded and cover additional intersections. The $357,200 is requested to be appropriated from the Unappropriated General Reserve Fund to Departmental Special Equipment (10140200.732120). Funding for future fiscal years (maintenance costs) will be requested during the annual budget process.
ATTACHMENTS
2018-01-08 - ATT Vigilant Solutions Quote
MOTION
That the City Council:
1) Pursuant CCMC Section 3.07.075(E)(3), waive the formal bid requirements; and
2) Approve a five-year professional services agreement with Vigilant Solutions, Inc. to provide an automated license plate recognition (ALPR) system in an aggregate amount not-to-exceed $443,500.
3) Authorize the City Manager to approve further amendment(s) to the agreement in additional amount(s) not-to-exceed $88,700.
4) Approve $30,000 to be appropriated for potential electrical requirements at the traffic signal power boxes;
5) Approve a budget amendment to transfer $357,200 from the General Fund Reserve to Departmental Special Equipment (10140200.732120). (A budget amendment requires a four-fifths vote.)
6) Authorize the City Attorney to review/prepare the necessary documents; and
7) Authorize the City Manager to execute such documents on behalf of the City.