Village of Oswego Committee of the Whole met June 23.
Here is the minutes provided by the committee:
CALL TO ORDER
President Troy Parlier called the meeting to order at 6:03 p.m.
ROLL CALL
Board Members Physically Present: President Troy Parlier and Trustees James Marter, Terry Olson, Pam Parr, Luis Perez and Brian Thomas.
Board Members Attended Electronically: Trustee Judy Sollinger
Staff Physically Present: Dan Di Santo, Village Administrator; Tina Touchette, Village Clerk; Jeff Burgner, Police Chief; Jenette Sturges, Community Engagement Coordinator, Marketing; Joe Renzetti, IT/GIS Director; Mark Horton, Finance Director; Jay Hoover, Building Services Manager; and Kevin Norwood, Deputy Chief.
Staff Attended Electronically: Christina Burns, Asst. Village Administrator; Jennifer Hughes, Public Works Director; Rod Zenner, Community Development Director; Corinna Cole, Economic Development Director; Carri Parker, Purchasing Manager; Susan Quasney, Project Engineer; Tim Zasada, Asst. Public Works Director Utilities; Ryan Morton, Village Attorney; and Karl Ottosen, Village Attorney.
PUBLIC FORUM
Public Forum was opened at 6:04 p.m. All comments received via email will be read during the Public Forum section at the Village Board meeting. There was no one who requested to speak; the Public Forum was closed at 6:04 p.m.
OLD BUSINESS
There was no Old Business.
NEW BUSINESS
G.1 License Plate Reader Overview
Chief Burgner and Deputy Chief Norwood addressed the Board regarding license plate readers (LPR). The Oswego Police Department has been exploring the concept of using LPR equipment to assist in crime detection and prevention. This technology has been in existence for over a decade and has become more widely used throughout the country as a resource for police agencies. LPR is a camera that can be affixed to a squad car or to a stationary object that can read license plates on vehicles. The data collected is retained and ran through a database to help combat vehicle thefts, retail thefts, burglaries and other potential crimes that occur in the Village. The equipment can be used in real time to identify vehicles that are stolen or have been identified as suspect vehicles in different criminal activities. Deputy Norwood provided a brief presentation:
What is LPR
• Automatic License Plate Reader
• Searches for and reads license plates of vehicles; officers do this manually right now • Provides search results in seconds to officers working the street
• Hits provided in real time from “Hot-List” (stolen vehicles, arrests warrants, vehicles of interest)
What can LPR do for the Village?
• Adds investigative power while reducing hours in solving a case without increasing manpower. • Helps create a geo-fence around the Village to help prevent crimes and improve safety (property crimes/hit and runs, crimes against persons)
Types of LPR Systems
• Stationary – stand-alone systems that are hard wired or solar powered
⮚ Can be fixed on poles or traffic lights.
• Mobile w/ multiple readers – system attached to squads that allow mobile capabilities. • Mobile w/existing cameras – turn existing in-car cameras into an LPR
⮚ Can be converted
⮚ Have not seen live yet
Vendors
• Flock (Axon) – stationary readers that are solar power
⮚ This vendor currently supplies the police department with their tasers
• Vigilant (Motorola) – stationary & mobile readers
• WatchGuard (Motorola) – mobile multiple readers
Stationary LPR’s (Flock Safety & Vigilant)
• Stand-alone readers on a fixed pole.
• Run on solar or wired power
⮚ Flock only does solar
• Creates a geo-fence around the village
• Not a mobile solution
• Staff recommends a turn-key operation
⮚ Companies that install and provide training
⮚ Equipment is leased annually
⮚ Assist with placement of cameras
Mobile readers on squad (Vigilant)
• Readers attached to squads that allow mobile capabilities.
⮚ Can be integrated into the light bars
⮚ Two, four or eight readers
• Only in use when car is in use
• Looks funky
• More expensive than stationary
Mobile – Existing Cameras (WatchGuard)
• Converts existing in-car cameras to LPR as well
⮚ Can only capture plates when the vehicle is moving
• Annual reoccurring costs would include licensing and backend analytics of software ⮚ Eighteen squads to equip
• If implemented, all front-line squads in fleet would have this functionality
• Single affixed reader(camera) has limited field view compared to multi-reader option • If a squad is out for maintenance, then the reader doesn’t work
Backend Analytics
• Regardless of what manufacturer is utilized, all have a search engine function that allows for an administrative portal to access footage, vehicle information, returns from the “Hot List”.
• Some manufacturers have a more robust search engine. One manufacturer (Flock Safety) uses proprietary machine learning that analyzes each image that uniquely identifies the vehicle by type, make and color.
⮚ Recognizes the type of vehicle as part of an algorithm
⮚ Can customize the backend; example: child sex offenders, arrest warrants
• 60% of crime is by mobile means
LPR Additional Uses
• Parking garage enforcement
• Overnight on-street parking enforcement
⮚ Can assist with exemptions for overnight parking
⮚ Can assist with permit or time limit parking
⮚ Can download technology to smartphones
• Time restricted parking enforcement
• Homeowner Association ownership and use
⮚ Can purchase a device and share with an agreement; public/private partnership
Considerations for Staff direction
• Stationary captures vehicles coming into village (geo-fence); reactionary
• Upgrading current in-car cameras with LPR licensing would allow to aid in additional detection of “Hot List” vehicles through the use of a national database
• While purchasing the multi-reader option may be more effective, it is considerably more expensive (price per squad)
Board and staff discussion focused on found the concept at a Chief’s conference in October 2019; not meant to be big brother; there are other things for the PD to do; looking for footage for best evidence; length of time it takes to run a plate manually; similar process done manually, but LPR is faster; LPR is used mainly north and east of Oswego; nothing in Kendall County; staff to put together a list of communities that use LPR; whether manually reading or LPR reading, police still need to do police work; battery life and replacement; solar versus hard wired; 24-hour period and recharge at night; turnkey options; lease agreement includes maintenance, theft, vandalism, breaks and malfunctions; looking more into solar than hard wired; battery life and maintenance costs concerns; will back project 150%; technology has not caught on due to cost; mobile units more prevalent; four cameras= $22,000 per squad; fixed location is more affordable at $2,000 per year per camera; agreement to include backend software; cost issue; able to share information with other communities through agreements; info sharing benefits; whether there is an issue with stolen vehicles; around a dozen vehicles stolen per year; cameras can also be used for retail theft issues; what the real priority is; always reading plates; helps to solve cases such as hit and runs; another tool to help solve crime with less resources; controversial; how long data is kept; analytics and how much data is being stored on each person; data is not stored on PD servers; data storage depends on the vendor; staff to inquire on data storage; how secure are the services; have to be in CGIS compliance; can include in the agreement; airports use LPR technology; best fit for the Village’s needs; used for criminal activity and not getting involved in people’s personal business; should be able to control; not against the PD, it’s the tech aspect of it; caution needs to be applied; only using for the intended purpose of catching criminals; whether the private sector is using the technology; cost to geo-fence; need another Committee of the Whole meeting to discuss further; other options based on the Village’s budget; needing more info on time period for data storage; concept is not new; attorney is not sure of any clients that use the technology currently; no legal issues; whether there are any other uses; looking forward to more discussion. There was no further discussion.
G.2 Update the Village Board on the Azavar Audits
Director Horton addressed the Board regarding the Azavar audits. The Village contracted with Azavar Government Solutions in November 2018 to separately review and audit each fee, ordinance, contract, franchise agreement, utility tax, locally administered taxes or fees, locally imposed occupation tax, ad valorem tax, excise tax, taxpayer, franchise fee, utility service fee, intergovernmental or other remittances to the customer. Azavar compares address lists, looks at bills and for coding issues and can go back three to four years to recover fees. Azavar takes a 40% share. To date, the Village has received $31,000 of the $52,000 recovered. After a three-year period, the Village gets 100% of the fees recovered.
Comcast- receiving $14,700 soon.
ComEd- Azavar is fighting with them to recover $13,000+
Board and staff discussion focused on Azavar only collects when money is recovered; only on found revenues; where money is going on corrected addresses; Finance will sometimes run their own address checks; this is the second audit completed; excise tax was fixed previously and it got switched over time; minimum of three years needed on an audit; Village is growing with new addresses added; sometimes the Village owes, but it’s not much.
There was no further discussion.
CLOSED SESSION
There was no Closed Session held.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 7:04 p.m.
http://www.oswegoil.org/pdf/6-23-20-cotw.pdf
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