Utility Protests Against San Jose Body Camera Purchase

SAN JOSE, Calif., June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Utility announced it has filed a protest to the City of San Jose's recent notice of intended award of a contract to Taser for a police body camera and evidence management system. Utility's protest—in accordance with the City of San Jose Code of Ordinances as well as the laws and regulations of the State of California—claims that San Jose's decision to award the contract to Taser was inconsistent with the terms of Request for Proposal 15-16-12 (RFP) and applicable procurement law. The protest also claimed the City improperly evaluated Utility's technical proposals and failed to evaluate cost in making a vendor award decision.

"The decision to grant Taser a contract for body-worn cameras without even considering cost can easily result in the City spending millions of dollars more than it could have over a five-year Total Cost of Ownership," said Robert McKeeman, CEO of Utility. "Furthermore, our BodyWorn™ camera provides Officer Down Emergency Reporting and real-time BOLO, Amber, and Silver Alert safety features that no other body-worn camera provides. In addition, our unmatched Smart Redaction™ automatic video redaction software allows police departments to avoid hiring additional video redaction back office staff to deal with increasing FOIA, Press and Court requests for redacted body-worn camera video. Back office video redaction staff increases could reduce the number of police officers on the street. With our Smart Redaction™ software, body-worn and in-car video can be redacted quickly and at low cost. Smart Redaction™  would have enabled increased San Jose Police Department accountability and transparency, while protecting the privacy of San Jose police officers and citizens. We were surprised San Jose would select a body-worn camera without considering cost and value."

A main point of Utility's protest was that Taser's proposal was the only proposal reviewed during the Phase 4 - Cost Evaluation of the RFP. Cost was supposed to be 45 percent of the City's purchase decision. Utility claimed that not considering cost as a factor in the procurement was in violation of San Jose's City Procurement Code. San Jose City Policy Manual (4.12.310(C)) states—for information technology purchases in particular—the City must "create opportunities for competition to arrive at the most economical price while meeting operational needs."

Utility recently published an analysis of the five-year Total Cost of Ownership for police body-camera alternatives. The analysis provides insight to several hidden, yet necessary, additional expenses police departments will face if they only consider the initial cost of the body camera hardware. The analysis shows that automatic video redaction and automatically uploading video to a secure cloud storage system in real time can save law enforcement agencies more than $12,000 per body-worn camera over a five-year period. Utility's 5-Year Total Cost of Ownership for Police Body Cameras Analysis can be downloaded for free using the following link: http://bit.ly/1XEyrdU

"Taser received a perfect 45 score in the cost analysis phase of the RFP evaluation, which is not surprising because no other bidders were considered," said McKeeman. "Had the City evaluated our cost proposal, the RFP evaluation team would have been able to make a decision on a cost and value comparison basis. We are confident in the unique capabilities our BodyWorn™ solution delivers. The major goal of our protest is to get San Jose to consider the cost and value provided by the three finalist proposals from Phase 3. Utility was the second-ranked vendor from Phase 3."

For more information about Utility's Evidence EcoSystem, including our BodyWorn™ camera solution, visit http://www.bodyworn.com and http://www.smartredaction.com.

About BodyWorn™
BodyWorn™ uses smart mobile computing technology incorporating real-time communications for the best possible Situational Awareness. Only BodyWorn™ provides policy-based recording, Officer Down emergency alerts, live video streaming, and Smart Offload that securely automatically offloads video wirelessly to cloud storage.  BodyWorn™ video, audio and metadata can be accessed through the AVaiLWeb™ digital evidence management solution hosted on Amazon AWS.  BodyWorn™ Software as a Service will continue to evolve to meet the demands of Police Departments around the world.  BodyWorn™ and the Rocket IoT™ in-car video system leverage Amazon Web Services cloud storage, and provide our customers with Mission Critical Intelligence.

Contact: Jake Mendlinger
Office: 516-829-8374 / Cell: 516-639-3373
Email: [email protected]  

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SOURCE Utility

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