Report Prepared by: Daniel Dabney, Captain, Police Department
Title
SUBJECT: Approval to Waive the Competitive Bidding Requirement to Allow for the Consolidation of Contracts and Purchase of Standardized Equipment and Approval of a Five Year “Officer Safety Plan 10” Agreement with Axon Enterprises Inc. to Renew and Consolidate all Axon Contracts and Upgrade Standardized Equipment to Include Conducted Energy Weapons (Known as “Tasers”) to Taser-10, Fleet Cameras with License Plate Readers Technology, Increase Body Worn Cameras from 98 to 108, Axon Interview Room, Licenses for Fusus Basic, Axon My90, and Axon Performance for the Police Department Totaling $1,812.168.51
REPORT IN BRIEF
Considers waiving the competitive bidding requirement pursuant to Merced Municipal Code section 3.04.210 for purchases necessary for standardization of particular types of equipment. Also considers the approval of an “Officer Safety Plan 10” agreement with Axon Enterprises Inc. to renew and consolidate all Axon contracts and upgrade standardized equipment to include Conducted Energy Weapons (Known as “Tasers”) to Taser-10, Fleet cameras with License Plate Readers technology, Body Worn Cameras, Axon Interview Room, and purchase of 10 additional Body worn cameras. In addition, purchase Licenses for FUSUS Basic, Axon My90, Axon Performance for the Police Department for a Total Amount of $1,812.168.51 over a five-year contract period.
RECOMMENDATION
City Council - Adopt a motion:
A. Waiving the competitive bidding requirements as stated in Section 3.04.210 of the Merced Municipal Code for standardization of equipment; and,
B. Approving a Five Year renewal and consolidation Axon contract for the Police Department totaling $1,812.168.51; and,
C. Authorizing the City Manager to execute the necessary documents.
Body
ALTERNATIVES
1. Approve as recommended by staff; or
2. Refer back to staff with direction; or
3. Continue to a subsequent meeting; or
4. Take no action.
AUTHORITY
Article III of Title 3, Chapter 3.04, of the Merced Municipal Code relating to purchases over Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars.
CITY COUNCIL PRIORITIES
As provided for in the 2024-25 Adopted Budget.
DISCUSSION
Currently, the City of Merced has 4 separate contracts spanning 8 years from 2019 to 2027. The current contracts are as follows:
• Body Worn Cameras and Tasers - April 2019 to April 2025, (6-year contract) totaling $789,899.50
• Fleet Cameras - July 2019 to July 2024 (Recently expired) $67,049.85
• Fleet Cameras - October 2021 to October 2026 $121,351.82
• Interview Room- July 2022 to June 2027 $31,973.85
Total : $1,010,273.02
Given the shortage of equipment and advancements in technology, the department has worked closely with Axon Enterprises to come up with a new contract that will better fit the needs of the police department.
The first year of the proposed new contract would provide one hundred and eight (108) Axon 4 body worn cameras. The advancement in technology increases officer safety by expanding communications abilities. Axon Body 4 introduces bi-directional communications between officers and their support teams by enabling multiple viewers who have access to the livestream to communicate in real-time with the camera wearer. A new Watch Me button empowers officers to signal for additional support with location and critical alerts displayed on Axon Respond.
Axon Body 4 offers the option to easily connect an additional point-of-view (POV) camera module. This camera can attach to an officer's head or shoulder and be handheld or affixed to the brim of a hat or sunglasses to allow for alternative perspectives that more closely mirror the officer's own point of view.
Upgraded camera features: Sharper images, improved visibility, a larger field of view and better camera capabilities enable the wearer to capture more of every moment.
More streamlined operations: Axon Body 4 improves the officer user experience as well as enables agency administrators to more easily manage their body camera programs.
The newly proposed contract also includes upgrading the current taser to the new Taser-10 and adds Ten (10) additional Tasers, bringing the total number to one hundred and eight (108.) The advanced technology allows for a larger separation between the suspect and the officer, allowing for better opportunity to de-escalate a situation before taking action. Taser-10 allows for 5 opportunities to use non-lethal force versus the current taser that only allows for one shot before having to reload. This is safer for the officer to stop the threat.
This contract includes additional and upgraded software technology to improve customer service and better meet the cities expectations of police officers.
FUSUS
The Merced Police Department established a Real Time Information Center, advancing public safety with the use of streaming live camera feeds to the police department. Axon Enterprises merged with FUSUS, a Video Management System in 2024. Included with “Officer Safety Plan 10” is FUSUS. Whether it’s a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle), a traffic camera, a private cell phone video, a building security camera, or a bomb disposal robot, FUSUS can extract the live video feed and send it to your emergency operations center and to officers in the field. FUSUS creates a public safety ecosystem that combines video with other utilities like CAD data, gunfire detectors, real-time officer geolocator feeds, a registry map of all the public and private cameras in our region, a multi-media tips line for the public, and a digital evidence vault for investigators. FUSUS enables Law Enforcement and Public Safety agencies to operate more efficiently, with improved operational intelligence and with a proactive emphasis on officer, citizen, and community safety.
My90:
My90 is software which allows the police department to engage the public, collect feedback, and build trust following service calls. My90 allows department leaders to engage with the community and measure, in real-time, the public sentiment of our officers’ daily interactions with those we serve. My90 validates how well we actually perform with immediate feedback following a call for service.
Axon Performance:
• Identify calls for service where there was no BWC (body worn camera) video when there should be or where a BWC was powered off.
• Simplified auditing.
• Configurable workflows that adapt to existing agency review processes, sends supervisors reminders about meeting their agency-configured review goals.
• Priority ranked video audits (PRVA)
• Automatically ranks priority videos by analyzing auto-transcript for offensive keywords and TASER events (trigger/cartridge deployed)
• Improved accountability.
Draws out actionable insights from video reviews on an aggregate audit dashboard and identifies who received the most "Great Performance" feedback and who needs coaching in order to achieve policy goals.
There will be new costs associated with the addition of the new body worn cameras, Tasers, CAD/RMS integration and Redaction Assistant software. Currently, the annual budget for the police department includes funding for the current Axon Contracts up to $1,010,273.03 thru 2027. Under the proposed new consolidated contract, the cost would increase by $801,895.48 for a total of $1,812,168.51 over a 5-year term from September 2024 thru September 2028. The increase is due to adding and upgrading the body worn cameras, Tasers, Accountability software and FUSUS.
The payment breakdown for the proposed new contract is as follows:
September 2024 $249,716.17 ($252,623 budgeted)
September 2025 $390,613.09
September 2026 $390,613.09
September 2027 $390,613.09
September 2028 $390,613.07
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TOTAL $1,812,168.51
The Merced Police Department currently uses Axon body worn cameras and Tasers. Axon Enterprises stores all the digital evidence from the body worn cameras on their server and would continue to do so if this contract is approved. Axon Enterprises would also store all redacted videos on their server. Since the Merced Police Department and the City already uses Axon Enterprises, the department is requesting the competitive bid process be waived to allow for the purchase of standardized equipment. At this time, there are several years of video evidence already stored on the Axon Enterprises server.
IMPACT ON CITY RESOURCES
The 2024/2025 Police Budget includes $249,716.17 for costs associated with the current Axon contracts. This amount is sufficient to fund the first year of the new 5-year agreement. Future year allocations will be included in the police budget during the annual budgeting process.
ATTACHMENTS
1. Axon Enterprises Quote & Purchase Agreement