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Council hears proposal to move Burlington bus cameras to cloud-based system at ~$31,200 capital cost
Summary
City staff proposed upgrading Burlington Urban Service buses to a cloud-based camera and GPS system costing $31,211.60 with an ongoing licensing/cellular fee of $6,800 per year; staff said the change would allow live video access, faster incident response and better performance monitoring.
City staff proposed a cloud-based video and GPS system from Radio Engineering Industries to replace aging, unsupported onboard camera systems on Burlington Urban Service buses.
The presenter said outfitting the fleet would cost $31,211.60 with a recurring licensing and cellular fee of $6,800 per year. "From an efficiency standpoint of my time and my staff's time to be able to get video footage in our hands pretty quickly, I think is a major bonus," the presenter said, noting the system supports multiple camera feeds (front, driver, rear and side) and provides GPS location for vehicles.
Under current operations, staff said, retrieving footage often requires buses to return to the facility and manual hard-drive handling; the proposed system would enable live browser access to feeds and faster evidence retrieval. Funding was proposed from the public works equipment replacement fund (current fund balance cited near $61,583). Staff said the system capital difference over the minimum upgrade was roughly $11,000 and that the city should budget the annual licensing/cellular cost in future fiscal years.
Council members praised the safety and supervisor benefits, noting GPS and speed monitoring could be used for performance evaluations. Staff said some hardware could be moved between vehicles, and costs for new buses could include the system at time of purchase.
No final purchase vote was recorded in the work session; staff planned to bring the resolution forward in the regular agenda.
