The earliest Aurora will probably have body cameras for its police officers would be January, according to city officials.
That was part of the detailed information officials provided members of the Aurora City Council’s Finance Committee during a recent discussion about the particulars of purchasing body cams compared to riot gear for the police.
City staff wanted aldermen to understand why a contract to purchase riot gear for police was ready for approval Aug. 25, while staff still has not yet brought forward a plan to purchase the body cameras.
Martin Lyons, Aurora’s chief financial officer, said while January looks most realistic, “it could be sooner.”
“But we wanted to answer the question of why this takes so long, compared to the other,” he said.
Those questions came up at the Aug. 25 City Council meeting, while aldermen considered spending about $88,000 for riot gear for police.
Several aldermen wanted to know why the city was considering the riot gear before the body cams.
Lyons and Alex Alexandrou, the city’s chief management officer, said it’s because buying the body cams is far more expensive and complicated than the riot gear.
“It’s not something that was hidden,” Alexandrou said. “It is a goal of ours. But this year we have had other things. It’s not like we purposely said let’s wait six months.”
Aldermen sent the question of buying the riot gear back to the Finance Committee for more discussion about how it fit in with also buying the body cams. Lyons pointed out through several timelines that aldermen actually began discussing the purchase of body cameras in the middle of 2019, during discussions for the 2020 budget.
At that time, city officials decided they would work through 2020 to find the funding for the body cams and put its purchase in the 2021 budget.
Now, buying the cameras has taken on a higher priority, and city officials have started the process to purchase them. But Lyons said the process is more complicated than buying the riot gear, because body cams involve coordinating with the city’s current computer systems.
Also, the purchase is a much higher cost, estimated at about $1.4 million for the initial purchase and maintenance, and up to $900,000 a year for annual maintenance.
“It’s a lot more interactive by design, so it requires a higher level of maintenance,” Lyons said.
He said the city is looking at using the Emergency Telephone System Board, which funds the 911 emergency system, for the funding. He said that could work because the body cameras are tied into the 911 system.
“But if not, we will look at other sources,” Lyons said. “We don’t have any federal funding for this as yet, but that is not going to delay this project. Funding is not something to have as a reason for delaying the project.”
He mentioned that high level city officials did meet with U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Naperville, to discuss possible federal funding sources.
Lyons said beginning June 9 – nine days after the unrest that caused about $3 million worth of damage in Aurora – the city began its investigation into buying body cams. The city is using Marketplace.city, which it has a contract with, to find suitable vendors.
By June 30, Marketplace had located more than 30 vendors, focusing on vendors with body camera hardware and associated digital solutions, Lyons said.
By Aug. 4, Marketplace had identified six vendors with the best fit for what the city was looking for, and had sent out requests for qualifications to those firms, he said. By the end of August, the city will have finalized the list and will send out requests for proposals.
The request for proposal process is not quite like bidding, because “price is not the only consideration, and it is not the majority consideration,” Lyons said.
“It is to get the project done and have it be an excellent service or project over the long haul,” he said.
The deadline for the request for proposals will be Sept. 21, Lyons said, and the city will assess the vendors through Oct. 5, whittling it down to two final vendors. At that point, the city will begin pilot programs, trials and testing through the end of October, with an eye toward a vendor recommendation by Nov. 6.
While the normal city approval process would take it to final City Council approval on Nov. 24, Lyons said there is a shortcut method the city can use to get pre-approval for both finalists by the council on Nov. 5. It would take two weeks off the normal process, Lyons said.
In comparison, Lyons said the timeline for the riot gear started June 25, a month after the unrest in which three officers suffered injuries. The city was able to get three quotes by mid-July. If the council ends up approving the riot gear by the Sept. 8 meeting, it still will need eight to 10 weeks for delivery, which means police would not have it until mid-November.
“There is no move to put one before the other, it’s just that one takes less time,” Lyons said.
Staff will make a presentation to the City Council Committee of the Whole on Tuesday, similar to the one given the Finance Committee. As it stands now, the purchase of the riot gear would be back before the full City Council by Sept. 8.
