Commissioner Ladina Bolton chaired the Employee Relations and Public Safety (ERPS) committee meeting, joined by Commissioners Marita Davis Johnson and Nicole Massia, with Commissioner Michelle Long Spears also present. The meeting covered presentations on the Digital Shield surveillance technology update, the DeKalb Police Department (DKPD) mid‑year quarterly report, and proposed enhancements to the police/fire pension plan. Several ordinance items were deferred to future meetings.
Good afternoon. I am Ladina Bolton, our Super District 7 Commissioner, Deputy Presiding Officer, and Chair of Employee Relations and Public Safety. And we are beginning our ERPS meeting at this time. Also serving on that committee with me are Commissioner Marita Davis Johnson and Commissioner Nicole Massia. Joining us today is Commissioner Michelle Long Spears. We do not have a long agenda with respect to items that need to be discussed. However, we do have several presentations that have been lingering for the past month. So we are going to start our meeting with those presentations because those guests have been coming for several meetings. So if we could start with, are we able to start with the proposed pension changes? Are we prepared for that? If we could take that one, maybe the last of the presentations. Okay. Okay. And that's fine. So we can begin with the digital shield strategy update and the I'm assuming the same person is doing that one and DKPD quarterly update. Alrighty, Chief, whenever you're ready. Yes, ma'am. Good afternoon, Commissioners, and thank you for allowing me the opportunity to give this update. And just as importantly, the safeguards and accountability measures that we have in place. So this slide gives you an idea of how broad digital shield is. All of these technologies no longer operate in isolation. Through the real-time crime center and the digital shield, we have that access to that information in one location so our people can make better decisions and in real time and get that information to officers and detectives when they need it. Technology does not replace police officers or good police work, but it does give us faster information, better information, and additional tools to do our job better. So on our current build out, this gives you a snapshot of where we're at today. As you know, we opened December of last year, and it was a a big build out. We currently have 181 pan-tilt zoom cameras operational with additionals planned. We have 204 automated license plate reader cameras operational with additional planned. We have three drones operational and another planned. We'll have four drones as first responders throughout the county to assist in our drone as first responder program. We have over 40 businesses integrated into the system with their camera technology. We have 120 gunshot or sound detection devices deployed across the county. And the way we do that is uh it gives us a two-square mile um apparatus with all of these uh detection devices, but we've taken that two square miles and broken it up into four different locations where we've seen the most uh reports of gunfire, and have four different quarter square mile locations for those gunshot detections. We've also been able to integrate our 911 information, our body worn cameras that officers wear, our vehicle-based technology. We're able to track where all of our vehicles are, and our Georgia Department of Transportation cameras have access in this technology. But it's not just to have technology, it's to connect the right information to make it useful for the officers on the road and for our detectives that are investigating these crimes. So this is this slide gives you a little bit about how our automated license plate reader technology works. We start with a legitimate law enforcement need that can involve a homicide, an assault, a kidnapping, a missing person, a wanted person, and most commonly a stolen vehicle. But when the ALPR identifies a license plate associated with that investigation, the real-time crime center and the the officers and analysts that are in the real-time crime center receive that information and they begin to help locate that vehicle, provide that information to officers in the street. Depending on the circumstances, other resources may be needed. If they have to access different camera locations, if they have to deploy the drones, if they have to use our integrated technology with regard to our businesses, then they do that. This technology provides information. Information that they can get to the officers on the street a lot faster without officers having to show up on the scene and find out what's going on. So this slide right here shows digital shield in action. These are true examples here in DeCab County of why this program is so important to the public safety. I've mentioned before the individual experiencing a mental health crisis that was attempting to jump off the I 285 overpass over 85. The drone gave our officers crisis and our crisis intervention team personnel real-time situational awareness, and we were able to resolve that without any injury to the individual who was in the mental health crisis or any of the public. This has been one thing that we've worked tirelessly on and changed our approach, but this technology is super beneficial, not only in uh the investigation and the prevention of these, because we look at these street takeovers before they happen, when they happen, and after they happen. The when they happen and after they happen, this technology is super beneficial because we have the ability to find out what's going on and deploy our resources when it's happening, but then we also have the evidence after it happens to go back and go through that data and identify the persons responsible. So all these are very different situations, but that's the point. It's not the technology is not to support one goal, it's to support our patrol, our investigations, our crisis response for the all overall safety of the county.