Good afternoon.

Well, welcome to our December Public Safety Committee meeting.

The last one for this year.

And what a marvelous year we have had.

Chief, I think we were gonna try to have a year without any incidences.

We'll try it again next year.

Okay.

That's our new year resolution.

Thank you.

Um Madam Clerk, would you just uh announce our committee members?

Chairperson Chair Person, Councilmember Scipio.

I'm here.

Vice Chair, Councilmember Hall.

Here.

Councilmember Joyner.

Present.

And Councilmember Andrew Bowen.

Here.

Thank you very much.

We have an exciting agenda for today.

It's so exciting.

And we're going to begin with a special announcement by our city attorney.

Turney French.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Good afternoon, members of the council.

I just wanted to take a um point of privilege to introduce our new public safety attorney who's been hired.

Um, William Glaskoff, who is here, if he will stand and be recognized.

Um, will comes to us from the magistrate's office having been there for about 18 years, I believe.

15 give or take.

Um, and um well known by um our police department, and we are delighted to have him join us um in our public safety area.

Um he and Pridging Green will continue to provide um great support to our public safety staff.

So I just wanted to introduce him at the committee just to this afternoon.

Welcome, welcome, welcome to our phenomenal legal department here at the city of Winston Salem.

Always trying to keep everybody doing the right thing at the right time.

What a challenge you have ahead of you.

This afternoon we have one consent agenda, and we have three general items.

Um committee, um push your pleasure on the consent agenda.

Move to approve item C one.

Second.

Thank you.

All in favor.

So our agenda, our consent agenda has been approved, and those are just our minutes from the last meeting.

We'll try right now, general item one.

Item G1 resolution approving the vehicle management solutions program.

And that presentation will be all right.

Good afternoon, Chair Scipio, members of the committee.

Amy Golden with the police department, and we're here before you to share a program that we've identified, vehicle management solutions program, which will have significant significant impact on our service delivery regarding the record dispatch services that the police department is responsible for managing the program for.

And what that involves a program that we currently manage is any record requests in connection with vehicle accidents or vehicles that pose a safety hazard on our roadways.

And so this program is managed by our Toliaison, Sergeant Ben Christian, who's here with me as well.

Uh, and we've worked in in identifying the solution to help us enhance our service delivery and the safety of our community and citizens as well as officers.

The part of the program, Sergeant Christian is responsible for managing, involves calls for service when an officer requests that tow truck, it comes into our communications or 911 center.

We get a lot of those, right?

So that impacts our staffing.

We're also responsible for inspections of the tow or the records themselves as well as the tow company's facilities, complaint management's resulting from those toes, and violations of the rules of the WSPD rules and regulations that we use to manage the record dispatch program.

So with that, I'm gonna defer to Alan Bracer with Vehicle Management Solutions, and he's gonna give a high-level overview of the program, and then we'll talk about the fees briefly.

Great, Madam Chair Committee, Alan Braisher, Vice President for BMS.

Pleasure to be with you today.

So why is this initiative important?

Uh, if you look around the city of Winston Salem, 20% of all the vehicle crashes are considered secondary crashes.

Often those are fatalities, very serious injuries, and those can be avoided if we could just expedite the dispatch process between officers, your dispatch communications, and the participating record companies.

Another big issue or what's defined as struck by us.

A lot of you have seen the dash cam videos like me of our first responders, firefighters, officers, paramedics working a scene, distracted driver, I see conditions, something happens, more fatalities, serious injuries, right?

And those can be avoided again if we can expedite that dispatch process.

On this slide, I just listed some of the key challenges that our solution addresses.

One, uh, you take a day like today, let's just say it ices over in about an hour from now, and the city toes 300 vehicles.

We're gonna have a website for the first time in history for citizens to locate their vehicle at one of the participating record companies and understand what that retrieval process is without having to call the city and bogging down your resources.

Uh today, officers are forced to make a radio call to the communications group.

We're gonna give the officers the option to use the MDT that you've already invested in.

That's the uh laptop on the patrol vehicle.

And when they do that, that will offload that radio call going into communications, free them up for other higher priority law enforcement activities.

Uh officers spend a significant amount of time due to the multi-step manual dispatch process, trying to get updates on a tow.

Uh I just touched on the dispatch communications group.

Uh they've got better things to do than be caught in the middle between an officer and having to relay that to record companies, not having instant information on the status of where that record provider equipment is.

Uh right now, there's no current capability.

The city has to accurately capture dispatch response times.

And as we all know, you can't improve what you can't measure, right?

So we're going to be able to within the minutes and seconds accurately capture those response times, and the chief and the team can make business process decisions to improve those response times.

Uh last one is excessive uh officer hours spent managing the record companies doing site inspections and equipment inspections, and that's a solution that we provide as well.

So those are just some of the key challenges that we'll address.

How do we do that?

So VMS invented a solution that transforms how cities perform the towing management logistics function.

The best way to think about it, uh you guys have all probably all used Uber before.

Uh, instead of dispatching a taxi cab, we're going to give that same capability to the officers.

They'll be able and your telecommunicators and dispatch.

They'll simply be able to make the initial entry of the tow request, and then everything is digital where all the stakeholders are watching it and acting on it with real-time updates.

No more manual radio calls, phone calls, and no instant information on that.

Uh, when we look at the administrative fees, uh, hopefully this is good news.

There's no cost to the city.

Uh, and we've waived our implementation fees, that first item up there.

The city is going to continue to receive the $10 per tow from the participating record companies.

That's always been in place or goes back a while where that's been in place.

That's going to continue.

Uh that will still be applied to the annual operating budget, which will remain in place.

And then again, we'll do all the implementation work up front, and then on that first tow with the participating record companies, when they release that vehicle, it's only going to be applied on the release vehicle.

It'll be a 43,75 cent administrative fee.

That funds the entire program with zero cost to the city.

Uh the 4375 will fund the entire VMS solution.

Our dispatch command centers, our boots on the ground providers that will help manage the record companies, uh, all the implementation and training as well.

I'll hand it back over to Captain Golden.

Oh, yeah, that would help.

And this slide here just gives a quick overview of the equipment price changes from 2019 to 2025.

Ronald Jones and Jerry Mathis from the record companies that we work closely with are here as well.

If there's any questions regarding these, but they provided this information to us just to capture what to justify what they're requesting in the $50 increase for the tow fees that they're asking.

So there's two fees that will be increased, which is the administrative fees and the tofu increase in the totality of the increase.

And so this is a quick snapshot of some of the equipment and things that they deal with and how that has increased over the last six years.

And equipment price changes, the specific equipment fees are negotiated between the tow liaison and the private tow or record companies themselves, but I wanted to give this to you as kind of an idea of some of the costs that they're incurring as well.

Just in the high level overview of the total increase.

So for general public or general services towes, the current TOE fee, as you can see during normal business hours is 175.

The tow fee increase for the admin fees, the third column over from the type of tow is the 4375, which covers the VMS.

The new tow fee is a $50 for the tow truck companies to accommodate the fee increases over the last several years.

So the total cost for a general public or general service tow during normal business hours would then rise to $268.75.

For after business hours, it goes from $200 to $293.

And that is that cost is in the citizen and the insurance company are responsible for that cost, and they negotiate that with a private tow company.

Typically, when we looked at this and in looking at these fees, and one of the things that we did was main or maintain um compliance with what other cities are doing and ensure that we're fair and reasonable.

So for example, the high patrol, they their tone company set their own rates, which are subject to approval by their first sergeant.

And again, they go by the reasonable and consistent, and they range anywhere from 150 to 300.

Durham, um, and everyone does it differently.

So it's really difficult to get uh apples and apples, it's more like apples and oranges that we were comparing.

So Durham for general uh tow collision tow involving recovery services, which is winching or um Dolly's is 325.

It ranged from 125 to 325.

Concord was anywhere from 175 to 325, depending on type of vehicle, and again, the same with high point.

It was around 175, but they they charge from what the research that we did was $35 per minute for every 15 minutes of extra labor.

So the increased fees with a TOW fee and the admin fee increase are not out of the range of what other cities are doing, even though we all do it slightly differently based on the ordinances and the operation that we have for our own agency.

Greensboro, for example, I forgot to mention was a 4% increase every year.

And so just if we looked at that same methodology and apply that from 2018 to 2025, the TOW fee would be 42 dollars increase.

So it roughly consistent with what Greensboro is doing as well.

Alan, I'll let you cover this.

Yeah, just to summarize the benefits.

So the program is going to create safer roadways for citizens, first responders, officers.

Uh, we're gonna free up officers to do higher priority police activities versus waiting on the side of the road and what the chief and the officers refer to as a kill zone with their head on a swivel, waiting on a tow truck to arrive.

We're gonna expedite that process.

Uh, we're gonna free up your telecommunicators and your dispatch communications office.

It's gonna enhance the citizen experience.

If you do unfortunately get towed due to a crash or for an arrest or or whatever the reason is, and then the last item will ensure compliance with the current city regulations.

And just a VMS overview, I'll quickly cover this one.

Um basically one of the things that attracted us to VMS is that DOT uses VMS solutions as well and several other major cities, North Carolina DOT I should mention, and other major cities such as Chicago, Dallas, Nashville, Los Angeles, and so it's it's a well-known program.

And the other thing that I'd like to mention is that the other cities that we that we spoke about earlier don't have a VMS solution.

So even those costs don't include a VMS solution that we're implementing.

So we're still within that range with this solution and the tow fee increase as well.

And any questions?

Committee members, are there any questions?

Scott.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um, these tows are just for police related instances.

So, like if I leave my car on the side of the road for a really long time, that's not what we're talking about, correct?

Correct.

It is vehicles involved in a collision or that pose a safety hazard to the roadway.

Thank you.

One more question.

And how many and tow lots do we currently partner with?

We have 15 on our record rotation list, and that's the way the rules and regulations are set up.

Sergeant Christian, is that correct?

15 15 is correct.

14 currently, but up to 15 are allowed.

Beautiful.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Okay.

I think this is uh a wonderful service.

Um regrettably, I've been in accidents.

Regrettably, I had a car towed and didn't know where it was because I had to go to the hospital.

Um, but uh my question is that cars, vehicles that are deemed totaled by the insurance company, the insurance company actually picks up these fees, correct?

Correct.

Okay.

And uh the markets we serve, we're in over 60 municipalities nationally.

We've always had excellent support from the insurance industry for that transparency, the website, they're looking for vehicles as well.

And let's see the fiscal impact of this, the cost of this cost neutral for the city based on the increases.

So there are no increases to the budget.

No ma'am.

Okay.

Um this is a um a resolution.

Committee members, how do we feel about this?

Move to approve.

Second.

We have a um official motion with the approval of the second and vote for that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Item G2, please.

Item G2.

Update on the Winston Salem Police Department's Axon Technology contract renewal.

Chief Demon.

Good afternoon, Chair Scipio, committee members.

Um, I am Manny Gomez.

I'm an assistant chief of the police department over the criminal intelligence bureau.

And assistant chief Diamond from the Executive Support Bureau.

We are tag teaming this presentation.

It's uh rather uh lengthy, not lengthy, but we're gonna go over it pretty quickly.

Um but it's a big ask of the city.

Um we have our partners here from Axon.

So with us, we have Andrea Swan to my left here, uh, Alison Matiola and Julian Brown on the back here.

Should we uh need a little bit of backup or you guys have questions that we may not be able to answer, they're here to help us out.

So I'm gonna get started and then we'll turn it over to uh to Assistant Chief Diamond and uh we'll progress from there.

So um we're presenting to you guys about our relationship with Axon.

I think it's important for you guys to understand the historical context of our relationship with Axon.

Back in 2008, the Winston Hill Police Department adopted the usage of tasers.

Um in 2011, we adopted body worn cameras, and at the time when we adopted these technologies, we these were cutting edge technologies.

We were early adopters.

Being the city of arts and innovation, you know that we're always on the forefront when it comes to technology, at least we try to be that way.

From 2011 to 2025, uh by that by that point until the present, we had the full use of essentially about everything that Axon offered, which were their body worn cameras, in-car video cameras, their tasers, all our interview rooms, our interview rooms are for our uh criminal investigations division, homicide investigations, robbery investigations, all those type of serious uh crimes are handled in within those investigative rooms, uh, as well as our professional standards division, so any administrative matters, those are all recorded via Axon and then stored in the evidence.com cloud, a secured server, if you will.

So that kind of brings you up to date to where we're at today.

Currently, our contracts with Axon are threefold.

We have three active contracts uh with uh Axon.

So it's broken down into the body worn taser uh fleet contract, the fuses RTCC contract, and the DFR drone is a first responder are drone contracts.

Essentially, the one that ends the soonest is the body worn camera, taser and fleet contract, which expires September 30th of 2026.

The reason we are before you guys today.

Um the next one that goes is March of 28 and then July of 30 for the drones.

Comprehensively for these three contracts, we currently pay on an annual basis 1.7 million for these uh three contracts.

The proposal that we uh are bringing before the city management group and uh before you guys, if appropriations are are put aside to be able to fund this program that we're asking you guys is a proposed 10-year annual spend of 4.3 uh million dollars annually.

So there is an increase.

This one is not cost neutral.

Um so why not put it out there?

It's important.

It's important.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the committee.

So some of the key deliverables that we're looking at uh as we move forward with this a new axon contract negotiation.

Uh it would be the hardware for our FUCSIS RTCC platform as well as the DFR program.

Uh we would be getting new body worn cameras, our fleet car uh in-car cameras, uh, the taser 10 system, we are currently at TASER 7, Taser 10 is the newest one, and we are due for uh we've reached end of life on the Taser 7.

We are ready to transition to the TASER 10.

That comes with a new uh virtual reality training program, um, which is also uh the new wave for training in Taser.

Uh and then we're also due for a new interview room system.

So our current interview rooms are 10 years old, and it is now time for us to upgrade those as uh Chief Gomez mentioned.

Those are the critical interview rooms that we use for our homicide, our special victims unit, and it uh high level um administrative investigations.

Um the new software that we're looking at.

Um so over the last year, uh the state of North Carolina uh to include the DA's conference has um taken on a 10-year contract with Axon uh for evidence.com uh and Axon Justice, which is now how all evidence for cases has to be presented to uh the court system.

So we have to present all cases.

Uh all of our uh discovery is moved from the WSPD to the DA's office via evidence uh dot com.

Uh we were one of the first agencies to do that.

We've been doing that now since at least 2019.

So we were one of the cutting edge moving forward with that, uh, and our DA's office has really enjoyed that process and has made it much easier for moving uh uh discovery issues to court.

Uh the next thing is, and this is a big change for us, is we're looking at uh migrating our records management software, which we have had the same records management software for at least 27 years.

Um so if you imagine having your cell phone 27 years ago, we're still using the same technology from them as we are now.

So we are looking at a changeover to Axon Records uh as our new records management platform moving forward, uh, which will also handle a lot of our policy.

We are looking into Axon AI software.

Um that is a a huge one, a huge piece of this uh with the draft one automatic report writing system.

There are several different things involved in that piece uh that we've worked with our DA's office on as well and have their support in moving forward with that that technology.

Uh translation and trend and transcription.

The translation piece we'll touch on a little bit later because that's a really big one and a really important one for us.

And so we'll touch on that one a little bit later.

And the transcription software is actually allowing us to go in and look at our body worn camera and our fleet camera video.

It transcribes it.

Uh so if we have an interview, it would in the past it would take a couple of hours to watch that video and pull the pertinent information out.

The transcription software now allows us to keyword search video and take us straight to the part that we need to see in the video.

Uh and then unlimited storage.

So unlimited storage uh is a very large component for us, as you saw 2008, is when we started our contract.

We now have 1.2 petabytes, I'm saying that correctly, of data and over four and a half million pieces of evidence in our evidence.com from Axon.

So the unlimited storage takes us to where we'll never have to worry about storage issues with them again.

Uh so services and warranties that'll be included in that.

So we would receive full on-site system installation.

Axon will come here to help us in uh work through the transition to the record uh system, uh new installs on our technology, all of those different pieces of it, as well as training services.

Um they do instructor certification programs for the Taser 10 and the virtual reality platforms.

There will be 10-year extended warranties on the majority of our hardware and software components, uh, and then the professional on-site service uh for the records management.

That is actually Axon Embeds and employee here for the first year of the records management system to make sure we have everything that we need moving forward.

So part of this and one of the biggest questions that we have gotten about the 10-year part is that if we go 10 years, are we going to be outdated by the time that we reach the end of the 10-year contract?

So this timeline explains a little bit about what this contract does.

This contract does not just lock us in for the 10-year period for the hardware and software, it also guarantees us refreshes, and that refresh would take us to the most current version of the product.

For example, if we have uh Taser 10 now, we have Axon Body Worn Camera 4 and the Fleet NCAR Camera 3.

If in four years they have a new Taser 12 or body cam 5, we get that newest version on this uh schedule.

So every two years we are due for a body worn camera and the virtual reality refreshes.

So as that time comes, we would get all new cameras at those those uh point in times.

We get our cartridges for our tasers, which is very important.

Uh it's also important to notice that the that the virtual reality training uh offsets um about an $800,000 expense over 10 years in the way we certify with our taser.

We're no longer using live cartridges, it's done through the VR system, which is uh we're currently paying for those cartridges now as we recertify.

Um and then we would have at year five, we would have a body worn, uh, excuse me, the fleet in car camera refreshes, uh, which is very important for us as well moving forward to make sure that our vehicle dash cams are up to date.

And I'll turn it back over to Chief Government.

So the important part for for the area that I'm over is um the SkyDeal refresh and some of the uh FUSIS platforms.

So currently FUCSIS uh just as a reminder to you guys is a platform that we use to ingest the community feeds.

So any business partner that wants to partner with us and share their video cameras with us, and which has been an integral part of how we're able to solve crime so quickly.

You guys will see that here shortly in a future slide.

Um so FUCSES has been the video system management tool that we use to be able to incorporate all those technologies together within the real-time crime center.

So it's been uh integral to what we do.

Uh if you move along to 2030, we this has been placed at the 2030 uh spot simply because we are thinking five years from now.

So we have a current fleet of drones.

Um, and then if we get the appropriations for this program, we would uh we would add additional components to that to that um uh system.

We believe in 2030 that may be the time for us to refresh.

We simply don't know though, because the drone space is so new.

So what we've talked about and what we've allowed, or what Axon has allowed is given us a flexibility to say, okay, we need this refresh sooner, or we can push it out a little bit more so that we can get a little bit more life out of the current drones that we have.

At the time when it comes, if we're not using uh Sky Deal X 10s, which is the platform that we're using now, and they've gone to uh X12 or whatever the case may be, uh, we would receive those updated drones as part of this uh contract.

Um it goes all the way through, and then it goes to uh the end of the life of the cycle.

So the major takeaway from these two slides is by the end of the 10 years, will we be outdated?

No, we will have uh the newest software and the newest hardware to go along with that, keeping us still uh very much at the forefront of technology.

Um this is the slide that I was referring to a minute ago that I think it's important for you guys to note.

This is not this is not anything new.

I believe most of you guys have already seen this slide.

This is our slide from 2024.

So as you can see, homicide robbery, aggravated assault, larcenies, and motor vehicle thefts were all down.

Most of them by double digits and quite impressive uh if you look at the stats.

Um you can talk to anybody within the police department and everybody will tell you from our detective division to our patrol officers to anybody that's doing any kind of investigation that technology touches every single facet of these investigations.

What's most notable is that 85% clearance rate.

Now, we got to give major kudos to our detective division, our patrol officers that are on scene first.

They're putting in the hard work and doing old fashioned police work that's still, you know, we still have to do that quite regularly.

So they're doing a very impressive job of getting us there.

The other portion of that is the technology.

85% clearance rate on homicides on average when you compare the state and national averages of 45 and 57 respectively.

That that's pretty impressive anytime you see those kind of numbers.

I know the chief is proud of that.

We we at the police department are certainly proud of those numbers, and we say that it's due a large part to the technology that we use.

As we progress into 2025, we don't have all the all the numbers up there yet, but what you can see is obviously so homicides were still uh at the same rate, but keeping in uh in mind the reduction of 32 percent from the last slide.

So we kept it even so far.

Robberies are down 18 percent, aggravated assault is down 11 percent.

Burglaries and motor vehicle thefts are down.

Larcency are up uh a little bit.

We attribute that to some of the technology that we're deploying where we allow um our commercial partners to report their own larcenies uh electronically.

It doesn't tie up a police officer, but it allows them to report.

So I think because we've given them access to be able to report uh the larcenies that they're handling, loss prevention folks, if you will, that number has gone up.

It's not necessarily that we've had an increase.

Uh we believe it's uh uh it's a facet of uh uh easier reporting.

Um so total crime uh 2.8% going down.

Again, we highlight this because we think it's imperative that you guys understand that technology plays a huge and critical role in these type of investigations.

So what do we get now as opposed to uh what we're proposing that we're gonna get under this contract?

So as you can see, FUCSIS uh FUCSIS is not just a platform that we use at the police department.

This is actually a partnership that we have with Winston Salem DOT.

We also have a partnership with Parks and Rec.

Any any part or any department within the city of Winston Salem that has cameras or sharing cameras with us, City IT, City IT actually pays for half of this uh uh contract or the FUCSIS contract because they see the value in being able to ingest all these disparate feeds and then being able to view it uh everybody that needs access to us, that that being IT, the police department, and Winston Salem DOT.

So we'd be increasing our 1500 streams to 2250.

The drone operations is important.

Uh it doesn't look like a lot when you talk about three docs, that's what we'd be adding, three docs with the drones.

That is a huge increase in capacity for those type of operations.

The thing you don't see up here is D-Drone.

It's listed on another slide.

So D-Drone allows us to mitigate rogue or unauthorized drones.

If you guys happen to be out at the Christmas parade this weekend, we had an incident where we had drones uh uh flying around the parade.

We don't know who's flying those.

Sometimes these hobbyists think that they have the clearance to be able to fly, and they really don't.

The FAA has regulated airspace all over the place.

What D drone will allow us to do is allow us to go into the system and find out where this these drones are are being flown at, where the current drone is and where the operator is.

So it'll identify the location of the operator, then we can go to the operators location and investigate what purpose they're flying their drone for, whether it's for nefarious activities, are they authorized or unauthorized?

And then there's several general statutes here in North Carolina that allow us to conduct our investigations to see what's going on.

Um yeah, so as we move forward, uh we currently have 410 users on our body one worn camera system.

We want to up that number to 450.

450 puts us right around where our current allotment of sworn officers are.

We're sitting around 380 officers now, but we have 46 in a rookie rookie school currently that will graduate by July of next year, so we need to make sure that we have the uh expanded capability there.

We are dropping our number of tasers.

So 540 tasers is the number that we got when we first went with Taser a long time ago.

So what we've done is our allocation is nowhere near 540, so we want to take that number down to put it back in line with where we are, which is the 450 number.

Uh our fleets, uh, it will up it will update all of that.

It will allow us to introduce the ALPR system uh into the patrol vehicles, uh, as well as having live streaming capabilities for our real-time crime center.

Um and then again, the interview room piece is very important.

Our our interview rooms are at at their lifespan.

They're 10 years old right now with the camera systems that are operating in those, and we want to move forward brand new uh for that.

Uh so our current and proposed software currently uh you'll see it on the on the red with the current is that's what we currently have in our in our software in our software package now from Axon.

This is what we would like to move forward with.

We are currently testing the ALPRs.

We are currently testing the policy chat.

We are currently testing the draft one report writing software, uh smart detection, uh, the translation feature and the transcription feature.

All of those are what our officers are talking about now, have uh enhanced their capabilities on patrol.

The draft one, we're seeing a 50 per uh a roughly a 40 to 50 percent reduction in the amount of time the testing patrol squads are are having in how long it takes them to write police reports.

Uh so that's putting our officers back out on the street, interacting with the citizens, being able to be on patrol much faster than they currently are right now.

So I want I want to make sure that I touch on AOPR.

The chief was uh kind enough to give me the nudge and say, hey, let's let's talk about AOPR.

We apologize, we're pretty immersed in this uh all the these acronyms.

So what that stands for is automatic license plate reader.

So basically the police cars at the front and our camera have a license plate reader on the front, which allows us to basically use them as license plate readers.

That comes in very handy, especially when we're talking about locating missing and endangered uh people, whether that's the elderly or young folks that are missing, um, everybody sees these alerts as they come out, amber alerts and those type of things where we have uh license plate numbers for vehicles.

Um it removes essentially the human element from me identifying that tag and saying, oh, that's that tag for that amber alert or that missing person.

And then it's allowing it's basically automating it so where technology picks up the license plate and says, hey, this vehicle is wanted for X, Y, and Z.

We've had a lot of success already in the police department in the short trial that we've done with uh this feature in the police cars.

We've recovered missing people, missing endangered people, and we've also unfortunately uh have located missing people that uh were missing and were deceased.

That's not that's not something that uh that is uh good to talk about, but it's it's the reality of what we deal with.

The important part for that, at least for my perspective, is that the family got closure way quicker and wasn't wondering and didn't spend 24 hours, didn't spend a week, didn't spend a month uh just in anguish about where their loved one was.

We were able to provide them with closure because of this technology and the availability for us to locate the vehicle.

So that's what uh ALPR means.

Uh so these are the current proposed services.

These are all services that we do not currently have that we would be going uh up in.

Um of the big things I want to talk about too is the uh the fleet install piece of this.

So as we talked about when in 2026, if the money is appropriated for this, we would get all new equipment for everything that we have.

Uh we have 310 patrol cars that are equipped with fleet cameras.

Axon actually comes here to us and installs those cameras for us.

Uh so they'll work out a schedule with us where we can bring in and they they can go over and help us install those uh that that hardware and the software uh in in those cars.

Uh but we have multiple new things, uh taser instructor course for the new virtual reality training system.

That's a very important piece of this.

Uh we have our records pro service, which we talked about, which will be moving to the root new records management system, and having someone from Axon embedded here working with us on a daily basis, living here to help us implement all of those things as we move forward.

Uh and then all of the um AI professional services would be included in that as well.

Okay.

So this is the video.

So uh translate to ask.

I think I'm not sure who has the mouse, but can we hit play on this?

So this is a video that's gonna highlight the uh body worn camera uh when it comes to the translating features that it has.

And I'll play the video first and then we'll tell you uh about uh the program itself it's 15, yeah.

Press and hold translation.

Press and hold button, then say translate to X or auto-detect.

Then release button.

Translate to Spanish.

Language set to Spanish.

Good morning, sir.

I'm Corporal Boise with the Winston Police Department.

We got a call for service out here.

What happened?

Buenos días, señor.

Soy el Cabo Boisi del Departamento de Policía de Winston Hill.

Receivemos una llamada de servicio aquí.

See es que me asaltaron ayana esquina.

Good afternoon, officer.

Yes, I was mugged over there at the corner.

Hello, my name is Juan Lopez Sanchez, and my date of birth is February 5th, 1988.

So that gives you a very quick use case.

Those are uh A list actors that we uh got from the Winston Salem Police Department, and you can see their acting skills on full display.

So um we joke around a lot about like that uh little piece itself, right?

But in reality, there is a huge need for translating services in Winston Salem.

I know this firsthand.

I was one of the translators that was hired back in 1999.

Uh I was one of five.

Okay.

So my whole career since then, uh I've helped out with translating sir translation services.

There's not enough of us.

Okay, we've made a pretty decent dent from five.

Currently we have 29 uh police officers and nine sworn non-swarm staff professional staff uh at the police department.

Still not enough.

Um we reached out to Mr.

Bob Thompson with the language access, who you'll see back here behind us.

Um there's over 85 languages that are spoken in Winston Salem.

That's a pretty large number.

I can assure you that we do not have the translators that we need to be able to communicate with people in either the time of need or the worst day of their lives.

Um will this replace with this technology replace every single time that we need translating services for a human to be there?

Absolutely not.

Will it mitigate a lot of it?

Absolutely.

So keeping that in mind, um, we wanted to make sure that we highlighted this video.

The other thing that this does for me is this is personal to me.

Okay, my mother does not speak English that well.

Okay, I think about my mother and having an interaction with our officers, right?

She may have the best interaction and the most polite interaction with our officers, but if she can't communicate, then it's gonna be a pretty bad interaction for her.

This technology has the availability for in case I'm not available or my siblings are not available, that they can commute that she can communicate clearly and effectively with a law enforcement officer.

And as we said, 85 different languages in in Winston Salem.

I think it's over 150 that the camera translates.

Um that feature that was displayed to you was the officer went ahead and told it it's Spanish.

We knew it was Spanish, but what if we don't know what language it is?

It can auto-detect the language itself and then uh begin those translating services for the officer and that person to communicate.

So that's a pretty big uh component of of what we're doing and what we think.

It highlights some of the strategic plans that the city has for the community engagement and uh positive interactions with law enforcement.

I think that that goes a long way, and we have the support of uh the language access folks here within the city.

So in summary, I know that we've given you guys a lot of information and a lot to digest for those numbers that were thrown out.

But we're asking uh essentially that three separate contracts be rolled into one contract for a term length of 10 years.

Okay, and what we're asking is is for these uh contracts to be bundled into the next generation package that Axon has to offer, which includes Taser 10, Axon Body 4, SkyDio Drones, all the D-Drone Suite, interview rooms, vehicles, uh all their vehicle camera integrations, and all of their AI package.

We keep talking about AI.

AI is used currently within your cell phones.

That's how prevalent AI is.

So we are asking you guys to continue this whole arts and innovation platform that the city of Winston Salem has always made itself popular for, so that we can continue to be uh front leaders when it comes to the use of this type of technology.

So as we progressed and we started talking with the Axon group, our numbers were pretty high, but we've gotten a essentially a $26 million discount when we bundled all this.

We live in a world of bundles, cable company, phone company, you guys know the deal.

I'm not telling you anything you don't you guys don't know.

But essentially that's that's the offer, and that's what we have.

So that's that in summary has the presentation.

And if you guys have any questions whatsoever, please let us know.

Thank you so much.

Technology is how we live today.

Um my aunt was 92 years old and she had an iPad.

I didn't have one.

She had a smartphone, I had a flip phone.

Um this was many years ago, she said to me, and that if you don't stay current, you will be left behind.

How true that is.

So we must embrace technology, and the city has done so.

We were leaders, and I know we must stay that way.

Uh there's a lot of need for where we're going with technology.

Um have this discussion today is just marvelous.

Um Mr.

Pate, I think you want to make a couple comments.

Uh yes, ma'am, thank you.

Uh just to be clear as to as to what's being asked today.

Um as council is well aware, our our budget cycle is on a July 1st to June 30th uh fiscal year.

So this is not within our current budget cycle.

Uh the reason it's coming uh before you today is because uh Axon has presented this proposal there on a different calendar year, they're on a typical calendar year than we are.

So they have proposed this as a 10-year moving forward project, with the understanding, because we've had this discussion, that you are not in the middle of your budget process right now, and clearly this has significant budget implications for the city and uh in moving forward.

So what they have asked is that we sign an intent to move forward with this contract with them, and that intent will have a non-appropriation clause in it.

What that means is anytime we sign a long-term contract, we always have non-appropriation clause in that.

Because if you as the council decide, you decide on an annual basis what you're gonna put forward in the budget.

So in this case, we would be locking in the prices and of this proposal, and then you would have the opportunity to debate this as a part of your budget process, and then to determine do you have the funds available to move forward with this uh bundled contract?

If not, we would have to step back and look at other alternates, alternatives to doing this.

Uh, but the uh police department has put in a lot of time and effort into pulling this together, looking at bundling what we do in technology as one uh appropriation, but you would in essence be authorizing me to sign a uh an intent contract with a non-appropriation clause, and then you would have the appropriate time to debate this as a part of the budget process.

Thank you.

But you probably have lots of questions for them.

Yes, I know I have a lot of questions, and I know my committee members probably have some.

So, madam chair.

Um that was very exciting that that the best elect technology, um, much like Councilmember Scipio.

Um I guess your grandmother, your auntie, I was I wasn't really an adapter much quicker than you, so it's good.

Um so a couple of questions.

The the four four million three hundred and ninety dollars, thousand dollars, that's the total annual price, correct?

Yes.

Okay.

And then so if we multiply that over 10 years, it that's around like 40, I'm trying to remember my math, like four, four, three million dollars, forty-fourth million dollars.

Yes, sir.

The 26 million dollars on that last bullet, the bundle, is that a part of that 44 million dollars, or are we gonna be then paying 17 million dollars?

No, so that that slide was simply put in there to highlight the savings that we were able to work with bundling these packages.

Those are savings that are not tabulated into the 43, if you will.

Those are those were excluded to give you the 43.

Okay.

Um and then um one more question.

So this is very exciting, but I just think I can imagine that there's a big sticker shock to a lot of us.

Um if there was there like um a menu of services that you have selected from, or that we could say that for 40 million dollars, 44 million dollars is a little bit too much.

We would like to go with a 30 million dollar package.

Is there such thing as that is available, or have you guys already done gone through that?

So we have worked our way through some of that, sir.

Do you want to speak on that?

Okay, so we have uh worked our way through some of that.

Um unfortunately, as with the cable company, when you bundle your save and uh you get certain discounts, and when you go a la carte, uh those discounts are no no longer available.

Okay, so well, I feel like we've done the best job that we can.

There are other options that we can go back and look uh removing certain services.

We have presented to you guys what we feel at the police department is is the best uh program.

We understand that it is a big ask.

Um I will tell you, and you guys know this, uh the real-time crime center.

We have visitors, international visitors that come here for a reason to see how we're accomplishing the double-digit numbers that we've shown you uh to take back to the respective municipalities.

We always tell them technology is not cheap.

You have to have a commitment, number one, uh, from your community, and then number two, uh, elected officials and uh management groups.

So we do we do understand that it is a big ask, and we thank you for entertaining it.

Thank you, thank you, madam chair.

Please go ahead.

Councilmember thank you, Chair Scipio.

Thank you all for being here.

Thank you for your presentation.

Thank you for all of the hours that you all have spent uh with this.

I appreciate that.

Thank you for the presentation.

Let me um so that's the first thing.

Let me start by saying this.

In 20, I guess it was 2011, 2011.

Uh I sat in the public safety committee, and I sat in the back of the room when I think it was uh Chief Round Tree presented the idea of body worn cameras to the committee, and um, and I was able to just witness that, and anyway, I felt like I needed to say that.

So I was a fan of that um when it was first presented, and it knowing that that was 2011, that that's been a while ago.

Um I will say that the change over to the axon records management, I think that's really good.

Um that should be game changing for you all.

I think you all said that that's been in place for about 27 years.

Um so that should be game changing.

Um, I did have a question about the petabytes.

I think um, Chief Gomez, you mentioned 1.2 petabytes of data.

Did I say that right?

Are you all the exon representatives?

Okay, all right.

Um thank you for being here.

So um we could go to unlimited storage.

Let me ask a question about that.

Um the store the the data that we currently have stored is stored to the cloud, the same cloud that the um videos for all the body worn cameras goes to.

Yes, ma'am, that that would that uh that includes the body worn camera video.

Okay.

Um, in the event that no, in the event that for whatever reason Exxon is not who we choose to go with at some point in time, let's just say that.

What happens to that data?

Who owns the data?

So we own the data.

Um, one of the biggest pieces of this and why we are looking at the bundling piece of this is that in some way, shape, or form, we will still have to have evidence.com, which is where that data is stored because the state has entered into a 10-year agreement for discovery purposes.

So any data that any if we have a police report on a homicide, for example, all of the data that is in that homicide report, the axon interview cameras, any third-party uh security footage, the body worn cameras, all of that information uh is created into a discovery packet, and that discovery packet has to be transmitted to the district attorney's office by evidence.com.

That is how it has to be transmitted.

So, in some way, shape, or form, we are linked into the evidence.com portion of Axon, no matter no matter how how we go.

But the data is our data.

So, yes, there would be a process that if down the road we had to separate out, we would be able to get that data, yes.

And and just for information purposes, finding somebody that would take on that type of a project to transfer that amount of data.

Um we'm not gonna say that it's not possible, but we would be in in despair trying to find somebody that would take on that type of commitment.

I think it's like a hundred terabytes.

What did we say this morning?

For a petabyte.

Yeah, so uh one petabyte is one thousand terabytes, and one terabyte is one thousand gigabytes.

That's a lot of bytes.

I know that much.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um thank you for that.

Let's see, hold on.

Um you said that the lifespan of the um cameras right now in your interview rooms that that's right at 10 years, so that it's at the life of its own.

And you all would be looking to get new cameras for the interview rooms.

Would that be effective once a letter of intent is signed since they're already at their lifespan, or would that be a little later on with the September 30?

It would be it would be at the when this when this uh cycle begins.

So um it the last contract we signed was five years ago, so we're we won't be at the at the drop dead 10-year time period till the end of this uh end of this current contract.

So what'll happen is that these these three contracts would get absorbed into the one master contract, the new contract, but that won't happen until you guys have the appropriations funded for it, and at that point, our fiscal year starts on July 1st.

So after July 1st, we would we would have the funds appropriated if you guys chose to do that, and then we would enter into the agreement with Axon at that point, and at that point we would start to take delivery of all the equipment and we would coordinate the delivery of those new cameras.

We're basically squeezing everything that we can out of those uh the life cycle out of those uh interview room cameras, ma'am.

Okay, yeah.

Did you have something to say to that?

Oh, okay.

Okay, and let me um ask another question.

The third-party video support, this was on the same side when we were going over the current and the proposed um software, so it was a software question, yeah.

So third-party video support, does that go towards like the um uploading and with people in the community businesses and residents?

Yes, ma'am.

Actually register their their cameras and so as you can imagine, there's a there's a bunch of video players out there that all have their own little uh software glitches to be able to play them.

So Axon provides us with the availability to play those videos back.

Otherwise, we'd have to go to that respective business and get their software to be able to play those respective videos that are associated with whatever crime we're investigating that are a part of that specific uh investigation and that specific video management system.

So you can go on Amazon today and just select video system security system, and you get thousands of results.

You can go to Costco, Walmart, and each one of them has their own little software that's that's written, the code is written for them to be able to be be viewed under that system.

So if I pull it and I'm a law enforcement entity that's wanting to see that video or play it for court purposes, we need the software to be able to play that video.

That's what this allows us to do.

Okay.

Um bear with me, bear with me, bear with me.

Okay, this um goes towards the um the languages that we were talking about.

So the over 85 uh languages spoken in Winston Salem, over 150 languages that the camera can speak and translate.

I think ACM Voida, when we were talking about translation services, it was like 11 between 11 to 14 that human relations department, our city human relations department had identified as being the top 11 to 14 languages spoken in for sife county.

I am wondering whether or not you all have been able to get together to identify whether those top 11 to 14 are part of the 150 that the camera translates, because if not, then that could be a problem.

And I haven't spoken to them directly, but I'm go I know they've worked with human relations.

Okay, good.

Um, who gave us that our that list?

So I'm I am going to make the assumption that if that our top 11 to 14 are included in their 150.

Okay, good.

If if not, that's something that we should try to make sure that we will verify that, ma'am.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you, thank you.

And then this is my um last question, one of the last questions.

Um municipalities currently use axon that you are aware of in North Carolina, and that might be a question better suited for Axon if you all are comfortable in stating that.

I don't have the total number of municipalities across the state, but I cover North Carolina entirely.

And if you could introduce yourself for us, sure.

I'm Andrea Swan.

I am Winston Salem Police Department's Axon Account Manager.

Thank you for having me today, Council members.

Appreciate it.

So I cover North Carolina and South Carolina for agencies of a line size from around 100 to 500 officers.

So I see that spectrum, not anything smaller than that.

And I can say that effectively 85 to 90 percent of that line size uses axon in some form or fashion.

Now, to be clear with the NCCDA adopting axon justice and saying across the state unequivocally that everyone from a law enforcement perspective has to use axon in some form or fashion for evidence sharing.

That kind of bolsters our numbers a little bit, but from a taser and body camera and fleet perspective.

85 to 90 percent is a good number to go with.

That's good.

I appreciate that.

Absolutely, thank you.

No, thank you.

And then this is the last thing I have to say.

No more questions.

This is the last thing I have to say.

I think this is I think this is great.

I think it's good.

Technology is something that we all have to deal with.

We do.

I will I will publicly state that 10 years is just a long time to think about committing to anything.

Um that's my only concern, but I do understand all of the um updates that it will provide, all of the great things that it would do.

Um again, appreciate all of you all's research and what you did to try to get the best deal.

Um but but ten years is just a long, long, long, long time to to commit to.

Um, but those are my uh all of my comments, and I appreciate you all's patience and let me get through them.

Councilmember Joiner.

Thank you, madam chair.

I think my colleagues have touched on most things, but um I I will touch on um uh councilmember Hall's last statement and have a couple of questions to that.

The current contracts do those vendors have an upgraded package that would do some all most of what so the the current vendor is axon.

Okay, yeah, the current vendor is axon for those three separate services or those three separate contracts that we have.

They just expired at different areas, okay.

Uh, and we were basically yes, and then so then I wonder that that makes that point clearer for me.

So no business stays in business forever, right?

Okay, as we keep reading in the newspaper.

Um you have to retrieve data from a space that has no longer exist.

We put all your eggs in one basket, what do you get?

Uh that's a challenge, a challenge to to commit, as council member Hall says for 10 years to everything at such an absolute increase.

That's that's a that's a lot to chew.

That is a lot to chew.

And I wonder if we can have such tremendous numbers.

Um we uh 85 percent uh clearance rate, and I'm assuming that's just not closing the books, that's actually getting an arrest or some type of closure to those um cases.

If we can do all that on what is being put forth as a outdated, antiquated, not able to keep up kind of system.

Wow.

Do we really need to go from Fred Flintstone to the Jetsons that quickly?

I I'd like a response.

Okay, so I I think so.

Just uh a couple things that I want to make sure that we clarify.

We we are not presenting our current system as a Fred Flintstone, as you've heard me say, we are leading the way currently, yes.

So we we are uh looked at uh at nationally uh for people to come here and internationally, so I will say that much.

Um so I think it speaks volumes number one to our personnel, and we have to give them ultimate credit because they're the ones that are number one navigating these investigations and navigating the use of this software.

We can have the best software in the world, but if our personnel are not doing uh respectable job or a great job at using this technology, you have great technology that's in limbo.

So I wanted to make sure that that we recognize them because all this uh success goes to them.

Uh number two.

I I don't one of the things that we like to say in the real-time crime center is that we do an annual assessment, and whenever we can, we do smaller contracts.

And the reason why we do that is so that we can analyze the um software uh that we're using so that we can make an assessment.

Is there a better product out there?

Uh can somebody perform it better and can we do it better?

That applies to uh a lot of the software that we use.

There's a couple of instances, axon being one of them, unfortunately, uh, when we're having this discussion for this type of number, is we know that they are very instilled in the police culture.

They're a very large company, they've been around for a while.

Everything indicates we can't predict the future.

I completely agree with you, ma'am.

But everything indicates that they're gonna be around in the foreseeable future for that.

Um so that's why we're presenting the best options.

The reasons we did a 10-year contract is because we can lock in a better deal for the city of Winston Salem.

Um those are some of the reasons surrounding that.

So um, no, I I still believe that we are at the forefront of technology.

Um, after all, we are the city of arts and innovation, right?

So I always tout that.

I always think that we should be leading the way.

I also think that we should be exploring methodologies on how we better deliver services to our community and to each other, and I think that technology is gonna accomplish that.

Unfortunately, that comes with a lot of times a press pricey uh tag.

So um hopefully that was responsive.

Yes.

Thank you.

The 26 million dollar savings is seems interesting because it seems to be the same as the increase over that same 10-year period of 26 million dollars.

And so I I can speak a little bit of that, but I'm gonna let them answer that a little bit.

A lot of that has to do with the fact that we will be locking in refreshes for 10 years to make sure that we're staying in the up-to-date process.

But I can let them kind of explain a little bit more of that to you.

Thank you again.

So it's ironic the 26 million dollar being the correlative number, but it doesn't have anything to do with the other.

So when we look at our pricing completely unbundled or list pricing, that's where that 26 million dollar uh delta comes from fair market pricing, list pricing versus the negotiations that we've worked on in combination with the automatic bundling discount that you get by doing it all together.

Okay.

Thank you.

I I want to say thank you to everyone.

Um I really appreciate um the uh on a day like today for you all coming out.

Um, the effort that the officers and the department um puts forth every day to um not just keep us safe but to find solutions, answers, and responses to the needed questions that help resolve in the worst days that we have.

So I really appreciate that.

Um I appreciate this uh um being put together um very clearly for us um and understanding that yes, we do need to be in um uh looking forward always for not just um data but um how we do things.

And uh I would say I'm the slowest one to change on electronics, but we we have a lot to talk about and a lot to think about.

Um but thank you so much for your efforts today.

I have one more question.

Um is there uh extra funding available, grants, any kind of federal dollars that we could apply for, so it's not fully on the tax burden of our of our citizens.

I I I have asked the police department the the same question.

Um I believe there are a couple of places that we could go out and try to get grants, but usually those are very highly competitive, very usually they're very limited as well.

Uh it once you appropriate for it, sometimes there's a difficulty that you you can't a grants usually won't replace things that you've already purchased.

So I think it's a limited option that we might get that, but there is a I think a grant or two that they're considering whether they can go after.

Yeah, that is great.

We have we have applied for a grant in that.

There's also, and we've uh talked with the city manager about this as well.

There are several programs that we currently that we currently use that Axon would replace.

So I believe it comes up to about the tune of about 400,000 a year in savings that we would cut out of our current budget that would go towards this as well.

get that but there is a I think a grant or two that they're considering whether they can go after yeah that that is correct we have we have applied for a a grant in that there's also and we've uh talked with the city manager about this as well there are several programs that we currently that we currently use that axon would replace so I believe it comes out to about the tune of about 400 000 a year in savings that we would cut out of our current budget that would go towards this as well all right so I let everybody ask their questions so except now here are mine um some of them are just information that I think we should just know about to educate ourselves and others are not how long must we keep evidence so that varies ma'am that varies by the actual incident that being investigated some of it is in perpetuity some of it is a 25 uh year life cycle some of it it's uh 25 years after conviction so there's a lot of different rules that the state legislature has put uh for certain cases and it's uh it's a pretty long list so it can go anywhere from no evidentiary value which we can get rid of uh relatively quickly uh we have a whole general order on how to handle evidence because it's so expansive and I guess uh some of that evidence the ones that we're talking about here has to do that which can be stored digitally as opposed to physical storage right yes ma'am large number of evidence nowadays is is digital is digital when you think about a cell phone you're talking about some of these cell phones have a terabyte of information on them so um unfortunately technology is evolving at a very rapid pace and we're just trying to keep up with it I have a question about axon how secure is your software and your records keeping Ed what do you do for cybersecurity one of these anecdotes from last year.

So Axon prides itself on being CGIS compliant our system has not been hacked at any point in time we can relate back to was it Christmas of last year Axon was the only platform that was still up and running for the police department in the back end so a lot of reasons why federal agencies and police departments state and local and then even international come to axon is because of the safety and security of our platform.

And is axon number one in this area that you operate in are you number one we are who's your next competitor Motorola Motorola and who do you think might want to buy you out request if anyone had the vision and capabilities to do what we do I would say that that would be something that is something in the future but we've diversified since 1993 when we were just taser working out of a garage to where we are today our CEO and president's vision of this company has been solely towards law enforcement and public safety it's all we do.

Anyone else who wants to create the platforms and the software and the security that we've done is more than welcome to do so or to partner with us to the point where we're agnostic to other vendors working with us and I think the assistant chiefs can speak to this a little bit part of what we do is work through what's called an API to bring other vendors into our system so when you're in the real-time crime center at Winston Salem you don't just see our information you see city cameras you see other vendors you see everything out there to be able to make quick decisions when a crime happens so long story short I don't see that happening anytime soon based on how far we've come and how revolutionary we've we've created this software over the past decade and um given how smart your company is um how responsive have you been to wouldn't we have a situation here that needs to have a different resolution I can use a good example of the hurricane last year and maybe not specific to Winston Salem but to the whole area between here and North Carolina we brought boots on the ground through our axon aid to actually do search and rescue we brought drones and drone teams in from all over the country specifically focused on being on site where there's no power we went to Asheville we went to Buncombe County all the way out to Tennessee and we spent weeks of time with our law enforcement partners to try to find people and save lives so that's just one example of that when systems go down everyone here has my phone number we have customer support 247 either over email or live over the phone we have a customer success manager and then you'll have people in-house living here working through some of the more radical changes that are moving forward.

It would go uh through the virtual reality training system now.

That's how we would qualify.

Uh so our our reduction in cost as I as of right now, we have to fire live taser cartridges to qualify on the taser every year.

So based on what we've looked at uh with how much we're spending on those cartridges and the estimated for the next 10 years to do this with the new TASER 10, it would be roughly $800,000.

Great.

That's a good savings.

Chair Sipio, I just wanted to clarify.

She used the term C just, that means criminal criminal justice information system.

That's what C just means.

I love those acronyms.

Thank you for educating us because we still don't know.

Like the acronym police over here.

Um I really love the demonstration of the translation.

I think that is really a great addition to be able to have.

I like the fact that you've built in upgrades across the 10 years.

Because typically when we buy software or something, you get to use it, but the next level is never we have to pay for it.

We're gonna have to pay for it at a point, but when you build it in at a fixed cost, you probably are going to save a lot of money with that.

So I particularly like that.

Um this is my most critical question, however, and I hope I know you've been thinking about it.

Um with this system and its investment, how will it impact our current staff in terms of numbers?

So right now what we're seeing is is so this is a two-fold question.

So right now we sit right around a 380 off sworn officers that are out on the street right now.

By implementing the proposed software that we would like to request from city council.

What we're seeing in testing phases is that the officers are becoming more efficient.

They're seeing about a 40 to 50 percent time in reduction of report writing.

Um they are also writing better police reports that are more comprehensive and more inclusive.

Um you're talking about your worst report writer uh on your squad is now becoming one of your top report writers on your squad.

So we're producing a better product.

Uh we're taking making the officers more efficient and better at the same time.

Supervisors that are that are reviewing that report are also able to review a better report, so it's putting supervisors more in line.

There are things such as policy chat, which is also a piece of the acts on where we ingest all of our policy, which right now we've a we've in the in the trial phase, we've put about 1,500 pages of policy into it.

Uh, that right now is a very cumbersome lift to search through for an officer to figure out hey, this is not something I deal with on a normal basis.

Right now we can keyword search that and it will actually bring it right up with a step-by-step guide of how to do it and a link straight to the policy.

So all of these items that we're that we're testing right now have shown that our officers are becoming better informed, more efficient, and able to and able to do their job more efficiently.

The other piece to this is is if this is appropriated to us, this is a massive recruiting tool for us to use.

Being able to say, hey, we have an AI suite through Axon, this is what it does.

Come work for Winston Salem PD.

That's a huge part too to help us bring our staffing numbers back up.

So it's a two-fold piece as far as for the staffing goes.

So obviously, if we have more officers that are more efficient as well, it gives us more time to be patrolling, high visibility, proactive, proactive is the next step to being able to bring crime trends down.

Sounds like it's all about impact and efficiency.

It doesn't necessarily mean a reduction in staff.

Correct.

Uh, because we have these tools.

However, Chief and your team, I'd like for you to consider given where we currently are and what our current budget is, what would you have to give up to get the four million dollars every year to keep this?

Just not today.

Think about it.

Okay.

Um, Mr.

City Manager, I know this is information only.

Do you need something from the committee in terms of moving forward with this, or is this going to just continue in committee until January?

Um, it would be no, the Axon has asked us to make a commitment before the first of the year.

So and again, that commitment would be would have a caveat that it will be based on the non-appropriation clause.

So it will be based ultimately on the full council making a decision to include this in our 2627 budget.

But we're bringing it to you today because this is a big dollar amount, and we want y'all to uh I think the preference would be to have you uh bless us moving forward with continuing down this path of of getting the information so that's available for you to have during budget deliberations.

And I know there's a couple of questions that were asked about other options and time frame.

We can be we can look at those things as well, but the at this point what they're telling us is these are prices that are locked in to sign an intent by the end of this year, and after that, um, like uh most folks negotiating on the other side, they are talking about price increases.

Um, I think uh I'm not opposed to a 10-year contract, only because we buy cars now.

They're talking about buying houses for 50 years, uh mortgages and other things.

Uh it does lock in a certain right rate as you move forward, so you know what you have to budget.

Uh committee members.

Uh is anybody absolutely oppose moving forward?

Question.

Okay.

Thank you, Chair Scipio.

Um what has to be done by presumed 1231 would be to enter into um an intent contract, but with um a non-appropriation clause, considering that this is just coming from a four-person team.

Correct.

Yeah, four uh versus full full counsel.

And but with this letter of intent or intent agreement contract, um, it does lock in the rate so that the 26 million could still be realized if this is something that council does choose to appropriate.

That is correct.

Okay.

So it doesn't absolutely obligate you today, but it but it allows us to move forward.

It gives them an intent that we're looking to move forward with this contract.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Is anyone opposed moving forward at this point?

Is that good?

Thank you.

That's what I need.

Okay.

I think we'd like to move forward.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Great technology, thank you.

And now we have a very special treat.

And it'll be G2, Madam Clerk.

Item G3, Winston-Salem Police Department's bloodhound acquisition.

This is going to be back to the first time.

This is G3.

Good afternoon.

I'll just introduce myself, Chair CPL, members of the committee and city officials.

He's been waiting patiently outside.

This is Bo Cephas.

He's going to make his rounds through uh through this room, and I'll just go ahead and get started.

Uh, my name is Captain Phillips.

I'm with the Winston Police Department, and I'm over our special operations division, and that encompasses our SWAT team, our hazardous device unit, our traffic enforcement unit, our park ranger unit, our DWR DWI task force, and of course our canine unit.

Um, a little bit about why we have Bo CFIS here.

Um he is a specialized dog in tracking high-risk missing persons, um, including endangered children and um vulnerable adults, things like that.

So, for an example, if you have a child, somebody wakes up in the morning and they can't find their kid, or the kid was playing outside and now they can't locate their child.

So we have the resource now here in Winston Sound that we can activate Sergeant Hatch and Bosefus to respond to the scene.

Whereas before we have to actually reach out to Triad Bloodhounds, or we have to reach out to another entity that we you know, time is always of the essence.

Um the bloodhound here uses scent discrimination, so it does follow a specific human scent.

So, like my jacket that I have on in the back there is that sentence to me, just like your jackets on you.

So if you happen to go missing or we can't find you, we would like to take a piece of your clothing, an article, and Bosefus will then sniff that article, and then he would start to take off and and hopefully try to find you.

So um part of the program um does enhance our abilities now to search and rescue and able to locate um, like I said earlier, missing persons and um, for example, like dementia or Alzheimer, uh, people that have maybe wandered away from a home.

Um, in order to activate both Cephas and Sergeant Hatch, um we have when our field commander uh uh responds to a scene and he notices that this would be a good call for the blood hound to come out on if Matt and his uh dog is working, he will then probably be monitoring the radio and be responding uh regardless.

Um but it needs to meet the right key uh uh criteria of a either an amber alert or a silver alert where there's some type of cognitive impairment, or we feel based on the information we were given that this person that we're looking for or child is just a danger to himself or others unless we we try to find them right away.

Um obviously this would not be uh we we would not have our blood hound here without the partnership of our police foundation.

So a little backstory on how we got this was through AKC reunite to support um our bloodhound.

It was part of a grant requirement, and that we reached out to a local kennel um that was gonna be willing to match the funds that we had to purchase uh to get Bo.

So we met with uh the Forsyth Kennel Club and they generously agreed to match the funds that we were able to get.

So uh Bo was actually uh purchased from Georgia, and then he began uh began his 10 week training with Sergeant How Hatch, and it was in-house uh with the the police department.

So the police department uh could not be um here with Bo without the partnership of the Winston Sound Police Foundation and everybody here in this room.

So Miss Katie Grubbs is here in the back, represents the police foundation, so we cannot thank them enough uh for not just Bo but for everything else that they do for our officers and obviously the citizens here in Winston Salem.

Um so without their funding and support, we obviously couldn't have some of the things that we have.

So we're very fortunate with that partnership.

Um as you can see, some of the other dogs that we have in our unit.

We have six dual purpose dogs, um, which they are tracking and narcotics dogs.

We have four four single-purpose dogs, and one of them includes Bo here, and they are mainly for drug detection, and we also have um Sailor, who is our bomb tracking, a bomb dog.

Um obviously the capabilities of the dual purpose or criminal apprehension, narcotics detection article and uh searches for evidence, and then like Bo uh for missing people for coverage.

We have 24-hour response citywide with our canines and with Bo.

He is on call, so there's times in the middle of the night where Sergeant Hatch will get a phone call and he will he will triage the phone call, and if it warrants waking Bo up, Bo is more than happy to get up, jump in the car and and get rolling.

Um so again, it's it's excellent.

Um, and a little side note, we also we don't advertise it that often, but some and uh Davidson County actually called us because they knew we had a blood hound and they had a missing autistic 13-year-old.

So that's the type of partnership that we have.

It's not just for Winston Sound or the county, it's it's other counties too that get trying to get triad bloodhound here might take a couple hours because they could be on another side of the state.

Uh they could be in training or their dogs just might be down or exhausted.

So um blow uh blow Bo is just uh a great asset to have, and that's the type of of work that he's doing here.

Unfortunately, he did have a little surgery, so um he he has an injured right eye.

Just don't look at it.

He's a little embarrassed.

Um he's a little insecure about his eye.

But he he obviously still has his nose to smell.

So um does anybody have any questions?

Council member, thank you, council.

Um how old is Bo?

He's about a year and a half old.

He was actually born on the 4th of July.

Oh appropriate.

And uh long under ideal circumstances, how long would he be in service?

Uh most dogs usually give us about six years of service before we retire just honestly based on their performance and their age.

Uh him being a larger breed dog, they don't last as long as the smaller dogs.

Usually when we purchase dogs, we try to get the smaller frame dogs just because they they last longer.

So I would I would say probably around eight years old as one goal.

And when he retires, would he stay with you?

Um I'm gonna retire before him.

If the new handler doesn't want them, then he's welcome to come to the house and hang out.

When I retire, he's still have a few years of service left to give the agency.

Okay.

So we'll pass it off to the next probably sergeant or whomever.

All right, thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Any other questions?

Um welcome Bo Cephas.

Bo Cephas, yes, ma'am.

Who named him Bo Cephas?

Yes.

Well, thank you.

Um quick question about his training.

Uh, and is it con he's with you for now, and you guys have gotten a partnership?

Is there a refresher course that he has to go through at some point in time?

So we do 16 hours of training a month.

Every dog on the K9 unit where wherever it's decided, they do 16 hours a month.

So we do the routine uh maintenance training for every month.

So that's uh it's a constant training that goes on.

Great.

And I think that we always take things for granted, or we assume something.

But I'm just curious how much does it cost for us to have a canine unit with the dogs?

How much of our budget at the police department?

That can be at some future time.

Um does that cost because uh nothing is cheap.

I mean, you've got vets, you've got training, you got upkeep, uh dog food, and special diets and things like that.

So uh everybody may not know.

I partnered with the company that provides all the dog food for the dogs at the police department.

So the dog food is zero cost, uh say it's about ten thousand dollars a year on the on the dog food program that I got soft.

Oh, you're so smart.

Love that.

Don't retire, we keep need you.

Um Sergeant Hat does a phenomenal job with networking and um people have donating money to the uh police found out foundation specifically for the purchase of Bo.

And in the future, they'd like to um donate more money to to just expand that program to get another blood hound and maybe have two blood hounds working.

So the police foundation, people donating money to the police foundation has been a phenomenal um resource for us.

Can you tell us how much bow was purchased for?

So bow costs 10,000 dollars.

Um it was uh 2500 from the for Scythe Kentle Club and 7500 through AKC every night.

Yeah, so that's about typical patrol dogs run around 11,000, 115, and we train them in-house, so it saves us another 10,000 dollars if not having to pay someone else to train.

Wow, well, thank you so much, and welcome, Bo again.

Welcome to the Winston Cell M PD, and whatever you need from the chief.

Yeah, apparently he'll give it to you.

Gives you a hand any time.

Well, thank you again and welcome.

Thank you.

And our con we we really appreciate the Winston Seal and Police Foundation also.

Just want to go on record and say that they do marvelous work and provide things for this city that the public is unaware of.

But uh great services.

And if anybody needs to have a charity to donate at the end of the year for taxes, I would certainly recommend the Winston Police Foundation.

Uh thank you again.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate your time.

And now we just have just a little wrap-up for the rest of our meeting today.

I've asked our uh two major public safety departments, our police department and our fire department, to share with us and our residents uh some holiday safety ideas, and we'll continue first with the police department since you've been on the agenda all day.

We have Captain Jenkins uh who'll give us some holiday tips.

Uh good afternoon, uh Chair C Young uh members of the committee.

I'm Captain George Jenkins with the police department.

Um just wanted to go over a few uh quick safety tips to keep everyone safe in the city um through these holidays and through their time.

First of all, just um protect your home.

Um lock doors and windows at all times, even when you're at home.

Um if you have your front door open, lock your screen door.

Um, use timers for outdoor and indoor lights all the all times.

Avoid posting travel plans on social media until you return, um, even photographs you might take with your family members.

Just wait till you get back home to post those online to share.

Um be mindful of what you throw away at the curb, break down those large boxes, you know, people buying these large televisions.

If they fill in up your trash cans, maybe take two traps like with the get rid of stuff, don't pile stuff up so everyone knows what you get for Christmas.

Um stay safe while shopping, keep purses, wallets, phones secured, and out of easy reach.

Um parking well-lit areas and be aware of your surroundings and avoid leaving packages um visible, put things in your trunk of your vehicle.

Um, scam prevention, be cautious of phone calls, um, requesting money for personal information, donate to only verified charities like the Winston Police Foundation.

Um I mean, why not?

Why not?

Be cautious of of offers that promise big rewards and a little effort and just verify any unfamiliar company or individual before sharing personal info.

And that's all I have from the police department.

Thank you so much.

Some some little things we all think we know, but it doesn't hurt to be reminded to think about your own personal safety as well as those around you.

And so thank you, um, Captain Jenkins.

And now we'll have our phenomenal fire chief.

Trail is gonna tell us what we need to know about staying, keeping his fire trucks in the firehouse at night at your house.

That is positive.

You don't want to come home in the afternoon and there'll be a fire truck park in front of your house.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the committee.

Um I think first of all, we'll start off with Christmas tree safety.

And I think we talked about this last time you asked me to make some comments at the end of public safety, but um it is important if you have live trees or a live tree that you some you know what I recommend is be sure you're getting a fresh tree.

Take it home and don't make that final cut until you are ready to put it in the stand.

That is, you've got everything ready, the doors are unlocked, somebody's holding the door open for you, the stand is in place, the stand is full of water, make the cut and put the tree in the water immediately.

Um if the tree is allowed to, you know, the term I use is heal.

So if you let the water get below the contact point of the base of the tree, that tree will heal and it will never drink water again like it does if you make a fresh cut and put it in the stand immediately.

Um also, Tiz the season for space heaters.

Um space heaters are not particularly efficient.

We don't recommend them to start with.

Um it is about like having a hairdryer running all the time.

Um, but if you are bound and determined to use a space heater, uh they do need space.

Uh, be sure that they have three feet of clear uh area around them.

Uh we recommend that folks get uh factory mutual or UL braided space heaters, something that has a tip over switch.

So if a dog walks by, a kid walks by, you get up it in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and you kick it over.

Um there is a switch on the bottom that turns the space heater off when it is not sitting upright like it's supposed to.

Um, you know, just take care with those space heaters around bedding, clothing, um, furniture, those sorts of things.

Uh again, they do get hot.

It's about like having a hairdryer running, as I said earlier, and we know we know how how uh how hot they can get.

Um cooking, Christmas is the number two day in America for cooking fires, second only to Thanksgiving.

Uh so as we approach that day, it is important for folks to stand by their pan uh and not leave uh cooking unattended.

Uh if we could eliminate cooking fires, we would cut America's fire uh uh experience by between a half and two thirds just with the snap of a finger.

So um please don't get distracted by the telephone, the baby crying, the doorbell, uh, you know, friends and family coming in, helping them get stuff out of the car, et cetera, et cetera.

Well, you know, whatever that distraction may be, and you come back to your kitchen on fire because you have left something on the stove.

Um, and then uh, you know, about that, I will say a lot of folks have these nice slick glass top um cooking surfaces uh that is not an extension of the countertop.

That is not where you come in and put down your groceries, your pizza box, your mail, the packages that um you picked up off the porch.

If you're not cooking on that surface, it needs to be clear.

And then finally, I expect Santa Claus is gonna bring a fair number of scooters and e-bikes and um uh hoverboards and other things like that that are powered with lithium-ion batteries.

Um again, we recommend that devices like that uh be UL or factory mutual, and there are other um acceptance and testing companies or um entities around the world, but factory mutual and underwriters laboratories are the are the ones that we recognize most readily in America.

Um lithium ion batteries are dangerous.

Uh they have high energy density.

They are prone to going into what is called a state of thermal runaway when they are charging.

That is the battery is heating more internally than that heat can be dissipated.

Um and they catch on fire.

And they uh everything about a lithium ion battery is flammable.

Everything they emit when they are on fire is toxic.

Um do not charge in your path of egress.

That is, you've got a haul, you've got a bedroom at one end of the hallway, and you've got to go down that hallway to get to the exit of the house.

Don't charge e-bikes and east and and hoverboards and scooters and such things as that between where you are in the house and where you've got to go to get out of the house.

Um, use the recommended charger that's provided by the manufacturer.

Don't use fast chargers.

When when the charging is complete, take it off charge.

Don't leave it on, don't leave it on charge unnecessarily.

Just please the proliferation of lithium ion batteries in our modern lives is terrifying.

And I want to be sure that folks understand just how dangerous these batteries are.

Um and take them to a battery disposal uh location.

You know, if you go in the front door of Lowe's or Home Depot, they've got a battery uh depository there that you can use.

Do not throw them in the garbage.

We're going to garbage trucks on fire, uh recycle can't containers on fire.

Uh we're having more and more fires, you know, in landfills and recycling facilities around the country.

And you know, it's it's difficult to determine what initiates a fire at a landfill, but I would bet you lunch that uh nine out of ten are they they start with a lithium ion battery.

So please take care.

Thank you for this opportunity, Madam Chair.

I'll take any questions if any if anybody has one.

Any questions?

Well, I think thank you, Chief.

We're going to have a very safe, wonderful holiday season.

We're not going to do anything that the Winsis LMPD will come and visit us or take us to the big house down the street.

And we're going to make sure that we're going to be safe in our homes.

We're going to take care of those lithium batteries and take care of our Christmas trees and everything and cook well, but not burn up the house.

So we thank you again, everyone, for this last public safety committee meeting of the year.

Have a great holiday.

And thank you so much to our firemen and our policemen.

You mean a lot to us, and we thank you for all of the service that you've provided us over this year and the year to come.

We look forward to I'm going to predict, Chief, we're going to have 2026 will be a year with less bad behavior by residents.

Yes.

And Chief Mayo, we're going to have fewer fires this year.

Okay?

That's great.

And we also want to recognize, thank you, Councilmember.

Hall Ford.

Ford Hall.

I get it so confused.

Uh I knew it when she was in high school.

This name changes just too much for me.

Uh but emergency management.

Uh, Vernon is not here, but we thank him for all the service that his team puts forth, and we hope we will not have any disasters over the holiday that he'll have to come forth and show his expertise.

And I hope all of you will have a wonderful, wonderful time this year to the end of the year.

We'll see you in the new year, 2026.