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<br /> <br />City of Elk River Item Number <br />REQUEST FOR COUNCIL ACTION 3.6.* <br />Agenda Section I Meeting Date Prepared by <br /> 1v1ay 15, 2006 Jeffrey A Beahen, Chief of Police <br />Item Description Reviewed by <br />Use of forfeiture funds <br /> <br />Introduction <br /> <br />The police depanment budgeted for three mobile \7ideo cameras in our 2006 budget. The police in-car <br />v'ideo industry is a rapidly e\/ol\ring market, \vhich is driven by a requirement that the use of VHS tapes as <br />the primaty\rideo media stop by the end of 2007. As such, all of the prima:ryvendors have developed <br />digital systems, a much better \\Tay to store and transfer video data from the squad car to the depanmental <br />property room. This change hO\\7eVer brought about unpredicted requirements for digital media storage, <br />and it requires an additional investment using existing budget funds and panial forleinrre account <br />funding. <br /> <br />Discussion <br /> <br />Budget processes that begin over a year before purchases are made can be difficult processes to <br />implement \\Then technology is changing so fast. \X1hen the initial budget \vas established for digital video, <br />Vie had no cun"ent operational systems to re"view, no budgets or fixed costs to compare to, and only <br />v'aried guesses at ,"vhat type of equipment \\TQuld be needed to operate the total system. Some of the <br />proposed systems incorporated removable hard discs, some had \\rITeless data connections while others <br />used D\7I)'s to store "videos in the car. <br /> <br />Under the guidance of our IT department, "\\re \\7aited on purchase and implementation of our video <br />system \"vhiIe other agencies bought, installed and began operation of the ne"Vv style camera systems. Once <br />this \\/as complete \"ve ,"vere able to detemUne \v-hat type of system offered the easiest system of video <br />transfer, \\7hile maintaining the integrity of the e\7idence in a manageable storage system. <br /> <br />\X1e disco\7ered that a fairly robust server \\7ould be required to store the digital images. Although we are <br />starring ,"vith only three cameras, \\re \\rjJ] be transitioning over to the digital systems over the next few <br />)Tears, and our storage needs \\rill become greater each )'ear. The City's IT Coordinator, Bob Pearson, <br />began a lengthy research process to identify the equipment required to create the appropriate <br />infrastlucture for \7ideo storage. Hls primary concell1 ,""vas to build the system robust enough to last for <br />)'ears. This meant a large server \\ith significant hard drive space, a ll1eans to back that system up on a <br />daily basis, a means to both input and store the data, and a ll1ethod to retne\7e that data for coun or other <br />purposes. <br /> <br />C:\Docun1ents and Seuings\jbeahen\Local Senings\ Temporary Intell1et Files \OLK3\REQUEST COUNOL ACTION (3).doc <br />