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Budget panel releases $2.4M for San Francisco Police body-worn camera program amid redaction cost concerns
Summary
The Budget & Finance Committee approved release of $2.4 million in reserve funds for the Police Department's body-worn camera program after the department and the budget analyst affirmed the procurement process; vendors and public commenters warned that redaction and storage costs may be substantially higher over time.
The Board of Supervisors Budget & Finance Committee on Feb. 24 approved releasing $2,400,000 from committee reserve funds to the San Francisco Police Department to support a body-worn camera program.
Police Department CFO Catherine McGuire told the committee the department "is in complete agreement with the budget and legislative analyst reports" and that the department has budgeted $2,722,034 for the program in FY2015-16. McGuire said the department had hired nine of 11 positions intended to support the program (largely legal staff to handle records and redaction) and that two IT positions remained to be filled.
Budget analyst staff recommended the $2.4 million release and cited the department's submitted budget numbers. Committee members pressed the department on procurement and ongoing maintenance costs; McGuire said the Office of Contract Administration ran the RFP and the department participated as subject-matter experts.
Several public commenters urged caution on long-term redaction and storage costs. Ted Davis, who identified himself as a respondent to the RFP, cited a TASER/Metro pilot and characterized the redaction workload on that pilot sample as requiring roughly "1,000,000 hours" of redaction, arguing the city should analyze whether the redaction estimates in the proposed budget are complete. The department said legal assistants would help manage redaction and that storage and contract costs would be material in out years.
Supervisor Katie Tang moved to release the $2.4 million from committee reserve to the Police Department; Chair Mark Farrell said he felt comfortable with the procurement process and the motion was taken without objection. The committee advanced the item to the Board with the BLA recommendation and department commitments about staffing and procurement oversight.
Provenance: Item 3 (call, department remarks, BLA fiscal figures, supervisor questions, public comment, and motion) is recorded in the committee transcript for Item 3. Ending: motion to release funds approved without objection and the item advanced for further budget processing.
