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Because BWC policies and procedures are pivotal to all other implementation stages of <br />a BWC system, the RCPD will be moving forward with the production of written policies <br />and procedures in advance of a BWC system purchase approval. At this time, RCPD <br />staff seeks direction from Council to develop a BWC operational policy. <br /> <br />3. Policy and Procedures Approval <br />The implementation of a BWC system will change working conditions for sworn Police <br />employees, and concurrence of bargaining groups (POA and PSA) will be essential for <br />the program to be successful. POA and PSA representatives have been part of the <br />discussions to date and kept informed about the potential for implementing a BWC <br />system and the governing policies for its use. Input from the District Attorney has been <br />sought as well, as the RCPD will need to provide BW C evidence for court prosecutions <br />in a manner that meets the DA’s requirements. While initial approval has been granted, <br />more detailed discussions would be required. <br /> <br />4. Equipment Evaluation <br />Obviously one of the most critical aspects of a BWC implementation program is the <br />selection of the camera equipment and video/audio capture management software. <br />Equipment selection will need to balance immediate and long-term cost considerations <br />and operational functionality. Inversely, the purchase of the wrong equipment has the <br />potential to derail the effective and efficient long-term integration of any BWC system. <br />The committee has reviewed deployed BWC systems. As you would expect in any <br />technology purchase consideration, there is an array of products available to meet the <br />varied needs of end-user requirements. One of the most glaring inefficiencies <br />experienced by agencies early to deploy BWC systems was the labor involved in <br />labeling captured video evidence and video review periods to document video content <br />referenced in a written report. A local Bay Area county agency who was early to deploy <br />a BWC solution experienced end-of-shift overtime of approximately 1 to 1.5 hours per <br />officer, related to tagging and viewing BWC videos, at the station. In dollars, that is <br />approximately $3,600 per 24-hour period or approximately $1.3 million dollars annualy <br />for officers assigned to patrol. To avoid this expense, agencies now often issue smart <br />phones to all officers and pair the two devices together.This approach allows officers to <br />correctly ‘tag’ the video at the end of each recording event and complete reports <br />incrementally throughout the shift, instead of waiting until the end of shift to review the <br />video on the station computer. It will be with this understanding and other <br />considerations that we will approach the selection of the appropriate BWC system. <br /> <br />6.1.A. - Page 10