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HARLINGEN — Like law enforcement agencies across the country, the Harlingen Police Department’s demand for the latest technology in fighting crime is bumping up the city’s biggest budget.
Now, city commissioners are buying a $990,000 audio-video equipment and software package allowing the police department to store data in a cloud-based system.
Based on Police Chief Michael Kester’s recommendation, commissioners are entering into a five-year contract with Utility, a Houston-based company, to purchase the audio-video system including 50 police car cameras and 120 body cams while allowing the department to store evidentiary video files in a Polaris cloud database.
“This wasn’t budgeted,” Kester told commissioners during a Wednesday meeting. “I’ve been discussing this for a while with the city manager.”
The equipment and software package will replace an outdated WatchGuard camera and data storage system purchased during Police Chief Jeffry Addickes’ administration in 2017, Kester said.
“That in-car system is now end-of-life,” he told commissioners, adding he added body cam data to the system.
“They’re not quite end-of-life but they’re getting there,” he said, referring to the department’s body cam system.
After reviewing quotes from companies including Axon, WatchGuard-Motorola and Getac, which offered quotes ranging from $1.1 million to $2.5 million, Kester recommended contracting with Utility, with a quote of $990,000.
In Texas, law enforcement agencies contracting with Utility include Harris County, Arlington, Edinburg and Laredo, Kester said.
“With utility, it’s a one-package deal,” he said. “You get everything for the lowest price.”
Amid discussion, Commissioner Daniel Lopez asked Kester to request the company provide equipment to allow him to test the system before making the purchase.
“I’ve seen a lot of these through the years with the county and these companies promise you the world and then they don’t deliver, and so I don’t want you guys to be in a lurch,” Lopez, an attorney with the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office, said, referring to commissioners.
“I would recommend to the commission to allow the chief to reach out to them to see if they’ll give you some equipment for you to do a test run to see if that’s what you like,” Lopez said. “I just want to make sure whatever decision we make, chief, you’re going to be happy with it in a year or two years or three years.”
When Commissioner Michael Mezmar asked Kester if the purchase was “urgent,” the chief replied, “I needed it yesterday.”
To make the purchase, commissioners are entering into a five-year contract, dipping into the city’s $57.8 million general fund budget for a first payment of $396,000, City Manager Gabriel Gonzalez told commissioners.
To fund the deal’s first payment, Kester said the city could tap more than $400,000 in police officer salary savings.
“We always have salary savings which goes back into the general fund budget,” he said.
Meanwhile, Gonzalez said the police department will dip into its own $18.7 million budget to fund the deal’s four annual payments of $148,500.
The purchase will allow the police department to start storing back-up data in a Polaris cloud-based system.
“The biggest issue was we keep all the videos on servers in the police department,” Kester told commissioners. “Once we started adding in the body cams, we quickly ran out of space, and as you recall, every year I’ve come asking for additional servers to hold those videos. Because of the age of the equipment, it started crashing this year and having to retrieve all that information, get all-new servers — that’s been a challenge.
“The primary thing here is to upgrade to cloud storage so we can eliminate that problem and move forward with what basically everyone else is doing.”
