How 2 Police Departments Spent Budget Money

Des Moines Police Department

The Purchase

What started in quarter 2 of 2015, the Des Moines (Iowa) Police Department completed their purchase from WatchGuard Video just this past quarter 4, 2016. “Implementation is currently in progress for quarter 1 [this year], says Lt. Mark Buzynski with the Des Moines Police Department Planning and Budget Office. The full buy was for 100 4RE in-car cameras, 100 VISTA USB charging/transfer bases, 35 eight-bay Ethernet transfer stations, and twin 500 terabyte servers—one of which will act as a mirror backup.
In total, the solution cost $1.6 million, funded through federal grants, private contributions, general funds, CIP, and drug forfeitures.

The decision process

The PD received six different proposals and ran a pilot program for each for a month and a half. Their officers run a 10 hour patrol shift, so battery life was a critical metric as cameras had to last. The decision to purchase body and in-car cameras was not taken lightly. “Body cameras will help provide community trust, transparency, strengthen investigations, reduce complaints and litigations, and provide accountability for both police officers and citizens,” says Buzynski. Des Moines even consulted legal advice throughout the process to discuss—with a committee—privacy issues regarding both officers and citizens. “A great deal of research, consulting and discussions were required during this process,” he says.

Advice

Buzynski advises two specific things: 1) make sure to ask about failure rate both from the company and other departments, 2) test the equipment specs. “Each department has different trip loads or calls for service which will result in more or less taxing on the battery life,” he says. Test with your officers in the field under as normal circumstances as you can.

“Research every cost associated with cloud storage,” Buzynski says. There may be costs to upload and download data from the cloud.

Finally, training. “You will want to see how difficult or easy it is to use their equipment,” he says. Ask your potential vendor to show you how the equipment as well as back-end software.

Brentwood Police Department

The Purchase

With about 65 sworn personnel, the Brentwood (Tenn.) Police Department purchased SceneDoc roughly four years ago as a pilot program. “Initially the purchase was for the investigators in the Criminal Investigation Division to use to assist in documenting crime scenes,” says Lt. John Wood of the Brentwood Police Department. “Over the course of time and with the upgrades and new features of the program, such as the integration of our departments forms, not only do the detectives use the program, but also we have three of our crime scene technicians using it in the field. We hope over time that the rest of our technicians will be using the program.”

How had it helped?

“It has really helped in the field with documentation of crime scenes using the camera on your device and in filling out forms and paperwork in the field, he says. SceneDoc’s software allows Brnetwood PD to share scene photos, videos and documents in real time. However, the department draws a line between routine and more major investigations, explains Wood. The department will back-up photos with digital pictures on major scenes as a failsafe and utilize SceneDoc program for more routine documentation.

Also, having the ability to share in real time the scene photos or videos and documents has come in handy. We still backup our photos with digital pictures on major scenes as a failsafe, but for more routine documentation of scenes we use the SceneDoc program. However, SceneDoc built within the program all of the most common documents and forms that we can use in the field. It comes in handy when doing consent searches and taking notes. Being able to print out a complete case file to add to the case is a great help, too.

The initial introduction to SceneDoc was more curiosity. “We are fortunate with our department to be able to get approval to try new technologies that will help in streamlining paperwork and making our job easier in the field,” mentions Wood.