2026-10-14 - Public Safety Committee

00:00Welcome to the October 14th meeting of Public Safety. I'd like to call the meeting to order. We've got a number of items to cover, some information items and some action items. I appreciate everybody being here.

00:17The first item is an announcement. We're going to change the location of our November Public Safety Committee meeting scheduled for Wednesday, November 11th at 7 p.m. Rather than being here in Conference 1, the meeting will be held in Council Chambers at the City Hall, which is really right next door.

00:34I'm assuming that's because we're doing some type of recognition of public safety professionals. So if you show up here, you'll see us next door in November. Okay. From that, we'll move to staff updates. We love it when each of our chiefs give us an update in terms of things that are going on in the last 30 days or so with that Fire Chief Allen Law.

00:56Thank you, Chair Reese. Good evening, committee members. There's a few things. In observation of Fire Prevention Week, the Fire Department hosted four public education events, three Fire Station open houses alongside of friends and first responders gathering at our training center with our PD partners.

01:11More than 550 community members attended, engaging with personnel, receiving key safety materials and gaining insight into department operations and services. In addition to that, our data analyst Tracy Gibson, who actually spent 25 years with the Police Department in the last five with the Fire Department for 30 years total, has retired from the Fire Department.

01:34And we currently have that position open right now and are taking applications. And then on October 5th, Battalion Chief Scott Finazzo stepped into his new role as Deputy Chief of Operations following his promotion.

01:47Scott brings extensive experience to the position with 30 years in the Fire Service, 27 of those with us. Couldn't be here tonight. He had a previous engagement, but we'll make sure Scott is here in a future meeting.

01:57So we can just skip this and say we have a previous engagement. Is that how it worked? Yeah. Yes. Okay. I was really excited about his promotion and obviously he's filling big shoes, but we're looking forward to seeing him at the table and working with him.

02:12We'll make sure we get him in here. Yeah, congratulations and next person up, right? So strong, strong succession planning here in the department. Yeah, unfortunately he got a pretty neat bench. Great. Thank you.

02:22Chief. Yes, thank you so much. So under the Strategic Initiative of Attract and Retain, a diverse, talented and engaged public safety workforce, we've been able to hire two property technicians since the last meeting.

02:35And we had 10 officers graduate from the Johnson County Regional Police Academy. And so they graduated on September 29th. So that's really exciting. Under the initiative of Focus on Responses to Mental Health-related Issues, we have passed out year-to-date 1260 Narcan kits with 121 passed out in September.

02:52And we have passed out them at the Overland Park Wellness and Safety Breakfast, the O.P. Fall Festival. And so that program is going very well. Under Engage in and Continue to Promote Community Policing and Fire Prevention by Building Trust with Residents,

03:08we conducted a DUI check lane and resulted in 17 drivers arrested for DUI, 12 were alcohol-related and five were drug-related. We started our Community Police Academy September 22nd. We have 20 participants in the Academy.

03:24We attended Friends of First Responders with the Fire Department. We had our second national night out. It was very well attended on Tuesday, October 6th. And we had our Faith in Blue events this past weekend at both Deanna Rose and the Westbrook Church.

03:38And so additionally, we are still going strong on our problem-solving projects that we had, transitioning our operations from a more reactive response to proactive evidence-informed response. And so that is going really well.

03:51And the completion of our strategic plan still continues to be in alignment with everything else. And we have a special guest, Tony Rome, to give us updates on the Training Center as well. Thank you, Chief.

04:06Yes, thank you. Welcome, Tony. Chairman, members of the committee, thanks for having me tonight. I have an item later on. But I have the pleasure of updating you kind of at the midpoint on this project.

04:16It gave me a good chance to come and share a little bit of information with you. So next slide, sorry. Kind of a progress report. We are nearing completion on the roofing and the masonry. Interior work continues.

04:29The pictures I show you, you can't really see much from the inside. I do have a few interior photos. But working on the framing, most of the walls are laid out. A lot of the MEP systems are going pretty strong right now.

04:41Mechanical electrical plumbing. Everything that makes the building run. The exterior site work on the stairs, mechanical screen wall and parking lot reconfiguration. Just in general, I mean, I'm not going to lie to you, the rain has not been the greatest this year.

05:00We're building the building in a hole, essentially. It's kind of like a bathtub, so not the greatest place to build a building during rainy season. But it does remain on schedule. So we're looking at opening it really early summer, 2027.

05:15And then it will take a little bit to move in. We're moving from various buildings, putting some new stuff in, some reuse stuff. So it's going to take a little bit to move in and kind of the police department to kind of make it home.

05:31And then the project team also plans to submit for building permits on the Sanders Justice Center renovations phase one in late October. That funding is all coming from the same project. We were able to realize enough savings to renovate quite a bit of space in Sanders.

05:50And so that we're going to bid that work out this winter and we'll be coming to this committee with another GMP task order probably in January, maybe February. Maybe some time early 2027. So that's kind of the overview.

06:05And then the fun part is the pictures. So I'll just kind of go through them. So this is looking from the south. These are a rent. This is a rendering of what very early on in the design process. We all sat in the room for about three days and kind of just drew some stuff out.

06:18So this is what it was supposed to look like. The next slide. That's what it looks like. I'd like to give credit to Rex Harris. He's our drone pilot that took all these. So the next one. That's looking at it.

06:32That's the front. This can be the front door of the facility. So looking at it from the east towards Blue Valley Parkway. Next slide. It actually looks like these were taken last week. Next slide. This is looking at kind of the back of the facility.

06:46We are going to have a parking lot for some of the staff that work there. And there's some some ADA parking and other amenities back there. It's also a fire lane for Chief Long as his staff to utilize.

07:02So go to the next one. That's what it actually looks like. The next one. This is this is the southeast corner of the buildings. That's the it's kind of the outside fitness area. And then to the right where you see the light colored top and then the windows

07:17to the right. That's the the break room. It actually this rendering was done before we we kind of opposite value engineer. We actually added square footage to the building. Once we had the initial estimates we had kind of saved some money.

07:29Just think just want to make sure it was on budget. So the break room is actually a little bit larger than that. The way it's shown in there. But the picture as you see the next one. That's what it actually looks like.

07:43And then I think after this we're going to get to some of the interior photos. This is the small classroom. So as you can see we do have natural light. We are going to put blackout shades with the ability to to darken the room.

07:55The TV will go on the left left of the screen. That's where the structure will stand. And then the desk will kind of go to the right of the screen. These are two views of I there's no name for it. I call it the grand corridor.

08:10The one on the left is looking from the small classroom out to the front of the building. The one on the right is looking at the opposite direction. You'll kind of see the windows there at the end of the corridor on the right.

08:21Those you're not going to be able to see those. There's going to be a wall there with like kind of hard to describe it like a big police badge kind of a photo wall. It's a real grand. It's just a nice nice area that everyone can

08:39gather in kind of the training node. That's where I took the picture. Great for photo opportunities too for retirements and everything else and so. So then this will give it this. These areas basically give all the trainees and attendees of things places to gather.

08:54Go to the next slide. This is the fitness area. Looking out towards the southeast corner of the building. This facility everything that's going to go in here is currently in the vehicle out building. So we're reusing all of the fitness equipment that's out there.

09:12We're going to move it in here and actually turn the garage into the garage. So next slide this. And then finally this is the shooting range. Really long 50 yards and it'll be able to. I'll let the police department speak more about this.

09:29It'll be able to accommodate most if not all of the shooting. That's it. So I just wanted to give you a quick overview. I appreciate your time. And answering questions if you have any. Thank you. It's great to see those two buildings, not the rendering,

09:47but then the true drill and the footage because they look closer to gather than I thought. It looks a little tighter. So that's nice. Yeah. Any questions about the building before we move on? Josh. Thank you, Tony.

10:00You said if I heard you right, that we're redirecting savings from the facility. Yeah, because we're vacating, we're vacating quite a bit of square footage from the building. And that was always the plan is to renovate that because we do have space

10:15challenges. And so by building the building in 2019, we did a space needs study for both the courts and police department. And we're on phase. The building is basically phase two. It's like seven phases. So phase, I'd say two and a half to phase three

10:31is renovating portions of Sanders. There are future phases to that. Whether I'm here or someone else, it's eventually we'll need to happen. So we're on phase two. Since the magnitude of that project at Sanders.

10:46The interior of Sanders probably from a dollars standpoint is probably about one and a half million dollars all in. We have, we're buying some new furniture. We're relocating people from Westgate. The traffic division, which will allow us to allow the police department

11:02to kind of consolidate their operations in a more of a central location. We're also working on a centralized break room, a wellness facility. The wellness area and a singular question. Yeah. So there's quite a bit of different things.

11:17And there's also plans for during the programming of it. We also program some other spaces. But if I go back to our CIP, I'm looking just at the training line, but not the separate line. All out of the same.

11:35Thank you. Does Westgate become more room for squads or how does that change? Yeah. So when police department moves out of Westgate, we'll have the squad in there, but we have some reserve apparatus that we're looking to house and we'll put those over there.

11:50But eventually, I mean, the plans always been that that station would take on, be upgraded to maybe a unit that can handle more call types than just EMS and then progress eventually to a fire truck with that.

12:02So long-term. Okay. I know that neighbors love having you guys over there. Okay. Are there questions? Thanks, Tony. Thank you very much for your time. Before we move on to information item number three,

12:18I just want to say thank you to the city staff for preparing this item. I know Chief Joker is in our department. Put a lot of time and effort in the presentation to fully explain the background of the technology and how it has evolved.

12:30I would ask that we as a committee wait till the end to ask questions or express concerns as I feel that many of them will be addressed for us in the presentation. I'd also like to thank and remind the public that there's no public

12:45commentary committee meetings. We've had a lot of input into the presentation. If you'd like to make express comments, if you want to cover anything, you're welcome to do that at the public comment session before every city

12:59council meeting and you can sign up to speak at that time. With that, Chief Joker, I'm going to turn it over to you for item number three, the automated license plate reader. Thank you so much. Are you in the mind zone?

13:13Okay. Perfect. Well, thank you, Chair Reese, Vice Chair Beck, and members of the public safety committee for the opportunity to be here this evening. Although our conversation tonight is specifically about automated license

13:26plate readers or LPRs, I want to start more broadly with how I approach technology as the chief of police. Any technology we bring into our police department deserves thoughtful governance. We should understand not only what the technology can do, but why we are

13:39using it, how we are using it, what policies govern it, what safeguards are in place, and how we hold ourselves accountable for its use. Our approach, however, is not unique to AOPRs. It is the standard I believe we should and we do apply to any technology

13:55we introduce into our organization. I also recognize that technology and policing can raise legitimate questions and concerns. I think it is important that we acknowledge those concerns rather than shy away from them.

14:07Good governance requires us to listen, collaborate, educate, and be transparent about both the benefits and the potential risks of the tools we use. AOPR technology is an important investigative and public safety tool.

14:21It can help us locate stolen vehicles, identify vehicles connected to serious crimes, develop investigative leads, and in some cases help officers find people who may be in danger. Those capabilities matter.

14:34But I also understand the concerns that come with technology that collects information, particular questions about privacy, access, retention, information sharing, and appropriate use. That is why our approach cannot simply be about the technology.

14:49It has to be about the governance surrounding it. That includes strong policy, training, limited access, auditing, data retention, human verification, transparency, and ongoing evaluation. Tonight I want to walk through both sides of that conversation.

15:06What this technology allows us to do to support public safety and investigations and the safeguards and governance we have put in place to ensure we are using it thoughtfully, responsibly, and in a way that

15:17maintains the trust of the community we have the privilege to serve. As you are all aware, Ovelyn Park has been recognized as the second safest city in the country by WalletHub, and that does not happen because

15:30of any single program, strategy, or piece of technology. It starts with an incredible community, dedicated members of our police department, strong partnerships, and a holistic approach to public safety.

15:41Technology is one of those approaches. When used thoughtfully and responsibly, it can help our officers respond more effectively, provide investigators with critical information, and ultimately help us better serve our community.

15:55It should also be noted that ALPIT, our technology, is not new to Ovelyn Park. We have incorporated this technology into our public safety efforts since 2011. What has evolved over time are the capabilities of the technology and

16:08equally important, the governance, policies, and safeguards surrounding its use. In fact, even prior to the national dialogue that has occurred, we have already been discussing enhancements and potential amendments to our

16:21protocols following the completion of the World Cup and Maccabi Games. So these conversations are very timely and align with work we were already planning to undertake. We do not believe that because something has worked a certain way for years, it

16:34should automatically continue that way. We routinely step back, evaluate our practices, look at emerging technology and best practices, listen to suggestions and concerns, and ask whether there are opportunities to strengthen how we operate.

16:49ALPR technology is no different. We believe these are one component of a broader, integrated approach to public safety that contributes to keeping Ovelyn Park a safe place to live, work, and visit. And at the same time, we recognize that the value of many public safety

17:05technology must be balanced with appropriate safeguards such as transparency, accountability, and respect for privacy and civil liberties. Those are the important points we want to cover tonight, as well as respond to

17:18the recent questions we have received, which I appreciate from the members of the governing body and community. With that, I'm going to turn it over to Major Keith Jenkins, who will walk through the technology itself, how it has evolved since the beginning in 2011,

17:32and how it is currently being used within our department. Thank you. Thank you, Chief Chair Reese and the Public Safety Committee for the opportunity to participate in this important conversation about automated

17:45license plate readers. ALPRs are a valuable law enforcement tool that assists in important investigations and provide a single piece of the investigative puzzle. When my Ovelyn Park Police Department career started 32 years ago, we had

17:59very limited technology. I responded to calls for service with a radio, paper ticket book, a book of paper maps, and a notepad. Police reports were handwritten and we carried vitals of whiteout, also referred to as looking paper.

18:13In 1999, it transferred to the Criminal Investigations Division, assigned to be a property detective. At that time, we began to see minor advances in technology. The city had a writing program called Word Perfect, and we began to use an

18:28electronic report management system, also referred to as RMS. That leads us to today's discussion on automated license plate readers. As we will discuss in our presentation, ALPR technology is not new to

18:41Ovelyn Park Police Department. We have owned and used ALPR technology in a responsible manner since 2011. Tonight, we will discuss ALPR history in Ovelyn Park, given ALPR technology overview, discuss the privacy safeguards in place to protect information,

18:58discuss Ovelyn Park Police Department's commitment to transparency, and then answer any questions the Public Safety Committee might have. Let's take a moment to discuss what an automated license plate reader does.

19:12An ALPR is a camera that takes a photograph of a visible license plate. The ALPR camera is focused on the rear of the car at the license tag level. The ALPR records the plate characters, photographs a vehicle image, and notes

19:28the date, time, and location of the read. When a plate is read, it is compared to the National Crime Information Center, commonly referred to as NCIC. It also compares the read to authorized Ovelyn Park Police Department hotlists.

19:44Each comparison could provide an alert to the officers or employees searching the system. Ovelyn Park Police Department hotlists must be connected to an ongoing or documented investigation. Ovelyn Park Police Department currently does not have any hotlist entries.

20:01The number of Ovelyn Park Police Department hotlist entries varies throughout the year and is commonly utilized by our auto crimes unit. One of the things I want to stress is that an alert from NCIC or a hotlist only identifies a possible match.

20:16The employee getting the alert must confirm the information prior to taking any action associated to the alert. Investigators are able to conduct searches of historical ALPR reads as well. The investigator must be investigating a reported crime or attempting to locate

20:32a missing or endangered person to use the search function. ALPR historical reads are not random and must be related to an authorized law enforcement reason. An alert alone does not determine a crime has occurred.

20:47Further, a verified alert is just one piece to a larger puzzle as cases are investigated. Human verification and oversight are required and necessary when using ALPR information. When an ALPR search is conducted, there are several things that must occur.

21:06The employee using the ALPR signs into an individual user account the date and time of the search along with all the details of the search are recorded for future compliance audits. So when any ALPR search is conducted, the police department knows

21:21who completed the search, when the search was conducted, and the reason for the search. Now let's look a little deeper into what an ALPR alert or search does not do. An ALPR alert does not identify the vehicle driver or occupants.

21:38It does not use facial recognition. It does not display vehicle registration information. It does not determine whether a crime has occurred. And that does not read or state bumper stickers or vehicle decals.

21:52One note is that a large decal or bumper sticker placed in a legible position could be inadvertently recorded as a tag. Let's take a quick look at the evolution of Oakland Park Police Department's ALPR technology.

22:07In 2010, Oakland Park Police Department began testing ALPR technology for possible deployment in the future. In 2011, Oakland Park PD outfitted six patrol cars with fixed ALPR cameras mounted to them for daily patrol use.

22:25In 2012 to 2014, the City Council approved an expansion of our ALPR technology used to include fixed sites. Oakland Park Police Department staff set the initial retention period for ALPR data at two years.

22:40In 2015 to 2017, fixed ALPR sites previously identified and approved had ALPRs installed. It was during this time framed that the Police Department began to plan for replacement of our original vehicle-mounted ALPRs.

22:57For 2018 to 2021, ALPRWeb is developed. ALPRWeb is an automated license plate reader software solution developed for law enforcement. The Police Department partnered with other metro agencies to share ALPR information using the ALPRWeb solution.

23:17In 2022, by the way of federal funding, the Oakland Park Police Department expanded our ALPR fixed sites. The Police Department also began a technology upgrade shifting from our original ALPR technology company

23:29to one of our current vendors, Genetec. We moved to Genetec because they had a greater capability of integrating with ALPRWeb. In 2023 to 2025, several private businesses in Oakland Park purchased flocked camera systems

23:44and shared the information with Oakland Park Police Department. Genetec fixed site ALPR cameras were installed to replace our original system and the Oakland Park Police Department sunsetted our original vendor's cameras.

24:00The City Council also approved our 10-year axon contract as part of the new contract, Oakland Park PD, installing new Fleet 3 cameras in our police cars, giving them ALPR capabilities. And in 2026, Chief Joe Kirst and the command staff

24:17began discussions on ALPR retention. A review of the departmental needs was conducted and the PD reduced our ALPR retention from two years to one year. At the time of this reduction, Chief Joe Kirst noted

24:29she wanted to revisit our ALPR retention again after the World Cup and Maccabi games. At the conclusion of the Maccabi game, senior staff met and determined that based on current usage history that we could and should reduce our ALPR retention to 30 days,

24:43which is where we currently are tonight. The following slide provides an overview of the Oakland Park Police Department's current ALPR deployment. With our Genetec ALPR cameras, which are fixed-site cameras,

24:58we have eight fixed sites that include 37 cameras. With our axon ALPR cameras, we have one fixed site with eight cameras. This is a test site to see how axon fixed ALPR cameras work. We have 110 police vehicles outfitted with axon Fleet 3 camera systems.

25:18And daily, our operations division has approximately 25 to 35 police vehicles with ALPR capabilities in service at any given time. For flock camera systems, Oakland Park Police Department has shared access

25:37to private business flock ALPR cameras. Oakland Park Police Department does not own flock ALPR devices. We use the shared information for the purpose of receiving alerts from privately owned devices. We also have search capability of the flocks and ALPRs

25:52for the purpose of investigations. Access to flock search capabilities is limited to the police technology detectives and crime analysis unit. We are currently exploring options to replace our legacy Genetec fixed-site camera system.

26:06This replacement will ensure alignment of our systems with current best practices to include accountability in the auditing measures. The next couple of slides, we will provide information on how ALPR searches are conducted.

26:21One note as we begin this part of our discussion is that each system we talk about requires a valid reason for conducting a search. The reason must be specific. It cannot include vague terms such as investigation or routine control.

26:35Our Genetec ALPR web search. The Genetec ALPR search is conducted using the ALPR web system and is based on a license plate or basic vehicle description. A basic vehicle description could include make or color of the vehicle.

26:53Overland Park Police Department requires a valid case number or CAD event number be included to conduct a search. CAD or CAB stands for Computer Aided Dispatch which creates an event number for all calls for service.

27:08The employee conducting the search must have a case or CAD number and a valid reason for conducting the search. The reason must be specific to an investigation. A generalized reason for search is prohibited.

27:28As you can see from the example on the right side of the search feature, it's very limited and not very robust. Only requiring a couple of fields. The Genetec ALPR web search is audited by our technology captain every 30 days.

27:41Currently only technology detectives, crime analysts, dispatch supervisors and senior dispatchers have access to the Genetec ALPR search function. This gives the police department 24 hour access to the system.

27:55The axon search and audit capability are very robust. A search within an axon system can be done based on a license plate or basic vehicle description. Basic vehicle description could be make or color of the vehicle.

28:12The axon search system requires several more mandatory inputs to complete a search. The following fields are required. An offense category. The reason for this search. Case number or CAD number. Time range of the search.

28:29The axon search feature is very robust and is audited every 30 days by our technology captain. The next slide shows an alert from axon's ALPR system. As you can see on the right side of the slide, an alert with axon contains the following information.

28:50Hit reason. Context photo. A vehicle tagged photo. The read digits from the tag. It could contain vehicle information if it's present when the tag is associated to a hot list entry. An action buttons which allows the officer to validate

29:12the correct information in the hot list alert. The axon example and photo used for this presentation was taken from axon's ALPR training materials. I would like to note that an officer detective must verify the information from an alert hit

29:27to ensure accuracy of the information prior to using it or taking any action related to the information. This is a good place to restate that an ALPR alert from NCIC or a search is just one piece of a much larger investigative puzzle.

29:42The next slide talks about our floc search capability. As a reminder, currently only technology detectives and crime analysts have access to the floc system. Floc ALPR searches can be done based on a license plate

29:57or basic vehicle description. The basic vehicle description could include make or color of the vehicle. Following fields are required to do a floc search. Offense type, a specific reason, case number or CAD number, and the time range.

30:17Floc searches are audited for proper use every 30 days for our technology captain. Final note about the floc camera system. Overland Park PD does not own any floc cameras. Any and all access is shared by private businesses.

30:32This slide illustrates the current scope of Overland Park's automated license plate leaders. Fixed site infrastructure. The locations for fixed sites are strategically selected based on high call volumes, criminal activity trends,

30:50and specific operational needs within targeted areas. ALPR use based on a person's or group's race, authenticity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, income level,

31:07political viewpoint, lawful association, or exercising of First Amendment rights, or any constitutionally protected activity is strictly prohibited except where such information is part of a specific suspect description or otherwise directly relevant

31:24to a criminal investigation or public safety matter. Furthermore, fixed ALPRs will not be placed within 100 feet of any place of worship, polling place, or medical facility without the agreement of the owner or operator of the four-set location.

31:40ALPR cameras are purposely positioned rather than deployed in a grid or matrix configuration, ensuring that vehicle movements are not tracked continuously across the city. Currently, Overland Park PD's fixed ALPR cameras

31:59cover just .052% of the roadways in Overland Park, representing approximately half of one-tenth of a percent of our city's total street network. This analysis was prompted by insights from the ACLU, which highlighted similar comparative metrics used effectively

32:20in other jurisdictions to provide clear context on ALPR coverage. We appreciate the ACLU for raising this valuable perspective, as well as the Overland Park Public Works team for providing the roadway mileage data

32:34and precise calculations. Finally, in calculating the overall road coverage percentage with Public Works, we deliberately applied conservative assumptions that err on the higher side. While actual coverage is likely even lower than reported,

32:48this conservative approach ensures full transparency and accuracy in our reporting. Thank you. As conversations surrounding ALPRs progress, we are monitoring any reports, articles, legislations, and toolkits from organizations.

33:05We've taken recommendations from reports published by industry leaders made up of law enforcement representatives and subject matter experts, such as the International Association of Chiefs of Police and Major City Chiefs Association,

33:17and used this guidance as a framework for strengthening our policy and oversight. We are following new legislation, such as Missouri's recent executive order, and are participating in discussions to engage the Kansas legislature

33:30as this topic is currently under review. We reviewed policy research organizations, such as the Policing Project and the Manhattan Institute. We have engaged both the Kansas and National ACLU in conversations as they assisted in reviewing

33:43our updated policy, and we appreciate when members of council and our community send articles our way for review, as we are always willing to consider and discuss these. In our collection and review of valuable research,

33:58we found recommendations across several consistent themes listed here on the left, mainly focusing on access, auditing, usage, handling potential misuse, plate verification, data sharing, auditing data retention, and transparency.

34:14We compared this information to our policy to ensure we are in alignment, and we strengthened any areas we felt needed further guidance for any members accessing this equipment in the department. As a result, there were areas of policy shown on the right

34:28where we strengthened existing guidance, added or changed areas of the policy. For instance, we added a statement acknowledging our responsibility to use this technology ethically and responsibly. We strengthened our language around how audits will be conducted.

34:44We clarified language regarding how a case of misuse will be handled. If a mistake or misconduct occurs, it will be caught during a routine audit and will be investigated to determine if an internal complaint is warranted.

34:56If so, it will be forwarded to the Office of Professional Standards for review and a determination of discipline, which could include termination or decertification of a police officer. Cases of misconduct may be referred to the District Attorney's Office

35:10to determine if criminal charges are warranted. These could include, but are not limited to, unlawful acts of concerning a computer, stalking, or criminal breach of privacy. Penalties such as fines or sentencing time

35:24would be dependent on the charges filed. It should be noted this practice existed prior to the policy revision. However, we did increase our audit frequency and bolstered language surrounding identifying misuse.

35:37If a member of the public has a complaint about misconduct involving the use of ALPRs, they can file a complaint with the Department's Office of Professional Standards in person, at the station, by phone, mail, or even online.

35:50This is also explained on our Police Compliments and Complaints webpage. At this time, there is no process for a third party to audit ALPR usage and searches. Information contained in these searches are related to criminal investigations,

36:03so turning over data to a third party non-law enforcement would be potential criminal justice information services or a sieges violation. Lastly, we also increased the frequency of training to occur annually.

36:15We further clarified specific acceptable and prohibited usage, including affirming that this technology will not be used to monitor constitutionally protected activities, nor would allow for the use of facial recognition technology.

36:28We restricted data sharing with other agencies without a formal written request and/or data sharing agreement. We reduced our data retention from one year to 30 days, and we added a statement affirming the existence

36:40of an ALPR transparency page on the Department's website where our policy is also located. Currently, our policy meets seven of these top eight recommended safeguards. The first one we'll talk about is verification.

36:54This helps to avoid false positives. It is recommended to require independent verification of a license plate match before initiating an action based on an alert. This means confirming the plate characters,

37:06the plate state, the record status, and connection of the driver before taking enforcement action. The next one is data sharing. This refers to having written data sharing agreements or formal written requests from outside agencies

37:20versus allowing unfettered access to the data. The third one is protected activities. This means ensuring all constitutionally protected activities remain protected while using this technology, and that this is clearly articulated in our policy.

37:35The next one is auditing. This includes recommending regular routine audits as standard practice to verify authorized use and compliance with policy and detect misuse. Transparency. This is the recommendation for agencies to share information about ALPR use

37:52either publicly or through legislative reports. You will see this is marked yellow because while we currently have our policy and several frequently asked questions available on our website, we are building this out to serve as a transparency dashboard

38:04summarizing our ALPR use without disclosing sensitive information, and Major Jenkins will discuss this later. Next is misuse. This refers to not just investigating evidence of misuse, but articulating in policy that corrective actions will be taken.

38:20Training. This goes beyond informal training such as an introduction to the technology, but recommends a formal, reoccurring training for all users. And the last one is retention. This recommendation refers to a requirement to purge all ALPR data

38:37after a set retention period, which limits the amount of data police may access. Based on our analysis of historical usage data and investigative timeframes, we reduced our data retention from one year to 30 days.

38:50This adjustment aligns with recent legislation in neighboring states and privacy concerns. Our review confirmed that a 30-day window provides investigators time to generate actionable leads while ensuring routine data is promptly purged.

39:03We met with the ACLU of Kansas and nationally, and we asked them to review this revised draft. They acknowledged that our new policy addresses many of their concerns and highlighted the openness of our department

39:20to have a constructive dialogue regarding ALPRs. I believe this can be a model policy to serve not only across Kansas, but to assist any police agency working to ensure the responsible and ethical use of public safety technology.

39:33All right, I'd like to take a minute to talk about how the Oakland Park Police Department safeguards information and civil liberties. We guard information and civil liberties through rigorous oversight.

39:46We conduct monthly query audits. Those audits consist of a review of all ALPR queries to ensure appropriate data is entered for every search. Any and all searches missing appropriate data are automatically reviewed.

40:01100% of flagged or abnormal use is investigated. Identified cases of misuse are routed to the Office of Professional Standards for Investigation. Misuse that constitutes criminal conduct will be routed to the Johnson County District Attorney's Office

40:16for review of criminal charges. We have enhanced auditing and accountability features currently under development in partnership with AXON, and they should be ready for use in the first quarter of 2027.

40:32The Oakland Park Police Department is committed to open dialogue and transparency. The Oakland Park Police Department currently has a very robust transparency page where our policies are listed along with many other features.

40:43Currently have your frequently asked questions section related to ALPR. We've updated the questions and will continue to answer new questions and update the information as we move forward. Our transparency page also has our drone as first responders

40:56flight path tracker live and ready for review. My point here is being transparent is open to questions and accepting of feedback is nothing new to the Oakland Park Police Department. We will continue to be transparent

41:09and work with the community to highlight and improve our level of service in our police department. Another new feature coming in early 2027 is AXON's live dashboard. Once available, the live dashboard will summarize ALPR use

41:24without disclosing sensitive investigations. On the right side of the slide, you can see an example of AXON's transparency page. A similar page should be available to Oakland Park early 2027. I'd like to take a moment to highlight several key use cases

41:44demonstrated how automated license plate reader technology has directly aided critical police investigations. In selecting these examples, we intentionally chose a diverse range of incidents across different operational divisions

41:57to illustrate the technology's broad utility. The first selected case is a missing person case. The Kansas City Metro Agency entered a license plate into the National Crime Information Center in CIC system

42:12related to a missing person case. In Oakland Park, ALPR generated an alert when the vehicle entered into the ALPR camera's view. Oakland Park PD officers verified the information and were able to locate the vehicle.

42:26The driver was contacted and found to be very disoriented. The subject was transported to a local hospital for care. The missing person's family was then contacted and they were reunited at the hospital.

42:38The second case involves an armed robbery. Oakland Park PD received a call for service related to an aggravated robbery, which means with a weapon, officers responded to a location within the city limits

42:54of Oakland Park and contacted a very upset victim. The victim stated they were attempting to sell an item that advertised on social media and met a potential buyer to show them the item for sale. The potential buyer pulled the weapon, stole the item,

43:07and left the scene in the vehicle. The arriving OP officers were able to use ALPR data to assist with identifying a potential suspect vehicle. Oakland Park PD detectives used the information from the ALPR

43:18and were able to run the tag through dispatches and identify the vehicle's registered owner. Investigative resources were used to confirm the registered owner of the vehicle was the suspect in the aggravated robbery.

43:30The suspect was arrested and charged with aggravated robbery. The final case involves a multi-state burglary series. Burglary series occurred where a suspect targeted a particular business chain, furtherizing 11 different locations across seven states.

43:46The same suspect was seen on video footage at multiple locations. One location had an ALPR reader and recorded a photo of a license plate. Detectives checked the license plate and learned that it returned to a person on probation.

44:00Detectives were able to contact the probation officer and had the probation officer review store video. The probation officer was able to positively identify the suspect in the video. Based on the totality of the criminal investigation,

44:15the suspect was located, arrested, and pled guilty to the burglary series across multiple states. We've just reviewed three distinct cases, each unique in nature, yet all leading to a successful resolution.

44:27Responsibly used, ALPR technology is a valuable tool used to assist in many types of public safety investigations. As we close, I want to bring this back to why we are here and why we did this work in the first place,

44:42to serve and protect our community. I have tremendous trust in the officers and professional staff of the Overland Park Police Department. I see the work they do every day, and I know the professionalism, compassion,

44:52and judgment they bring to serving our community. Technology does not replace our people or their decision-making. It is one more tool that can help them do their jobs more effectively. I think about this in very practical terms.

45:05If a child was using an Overland Park tonight, I would expect our officers and professional staff to use every appropriate resource and available technology to find that child and bring them home safely.

45:15If a vulnerable person is in danger, or someone in our community has been the victim of a serious crime, I want our team to have the tools available to help them. This is ultimately what this is all about.

45:26We also know that trust is earned through the everyday interactions we have with our community. One of the ways we measure that is through PowerEngage, which allows us to hear directly from people following calls for service and interactions they have with our agency.

45:40We receive feedback about the service provided by our dispatchers, report technicians, and police officers, and our community satisfaction score consistently remains at 93%. I'm incredibly proud of our team,

45:52and I'm equally appreciative of the continued support and trust our community places in our department. We never take that trust for granted. And that trust is exactly why governance matters. With access to technology comes responsibility.

46:04We recognize the questions surrounding privacy, civil liberties, data access, retention, and the potential for disparate impacts. Those considerations are important, and they are why we have policy, training,

46:19auditing, oversight, transparency, and safeguards surrounding the use of this technology and other systems within our department. We will continue to evaluate AOPR technology and all the technology we use as laws change,

46:33technology evolves, operational needs develop, and community expectations change. We will continue to listen, ask questions, and strengthen our practices when opportunities exist. For me, this is not about technology for technology's sake.

46:48It is about giving good people responsible tools to do important work. It is about protecting vulnerable people, helping victims, solving crimes, and keeping Overland Park safe. We can be innovative and responsible.

47:02We can embrace technology and protect privacy, and we can advance public safety while maintaining public trust. Those things do not have to compete with one another. When we approach technology thoughtfully with strong governance,

47:17and with our community at the center of every decision, I believe they strengthen one another. And that is the standard I will continue to expect from our department and the commitment we will continue to make to this community

47:29we have the ultimate privilege to serve. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. I sense that there's a lot of questions that we've asked as a council, as a committee, and also the public have been included.

47:43Not necessarily the deck itself, but your comments. I listened very carefully as you went through that. So I think anybody who's reviewing this information will want to see the words, the script that you have is very helpful.

47:56Will that be published in a certain way, like on the transparency page? What I'm hopeful tonight is that this recording will be published on our transparency page, so that those that didn't have the opportunity

48:06to maybe listen tonight or that would like to listen to it in the future, we plan on publishing it on our transparency page. It's interesting, with great technology comes great responsibility. And I'm also thinking about the future.

48:20Facial recognition is coming, right? You've already covered that in your presentation, and I believe that's made its way into our policy. Could you speak to that, the emerging technology, where it's going, what you're anticipating,

48:34and how do these emerging technologies get incorporated? Sure. No, I appreciate that question. So technology is changing and evolving in public safety. It continues to do so. There's technology now, as Major Jenkins talked about,

48:49that when I started in '98, I would never have thought would have existed. And so with that, we try very hard to ensure that our policy is put in place, make sure that there's sound policies for our community

49:02and for our employees using the technology as well. And so it's very much a holistic approach. So we look at research and national standards and best practices where we can. We look at the technology we purchase and not just how it works,

49:15but the governance and the accountability means. And so you could really see that in the two pieces on search features and what that looks like. And so it's not just about the technology. It's also about what it all can encapsulate and look at.

49:27And so I would just say it's always an evolving conversation, and it's something that will continue with ALPRs, with drones, with any of the other technology that's in our police department to look at making sure that if we're not evolving, you know,

49:42it's not going to work, and making sure that we're looking at the literature that continues to come out on this because it is a moving target. I'm also thankful for you looking at what others are doing,

49:52especially just recently. Missouri started to look at a statewide review, and they had an executive order. So you and I were interacting on that topic as well. I was really concerned about our data retention.

50:06I wanted it longer instead of less because I'm super sensitive to our investigation unit. If one of my family members were involved in a situation and knowing that the data was no longer available to understand

50:19what had happened and be able to bring justice, I would be very disappointed. So you had to really weigh the operational needs of an investigation. You had to weigh that with the idea of retaining that need

50:33for a shorter period of time. Tell me a little bit more about that, how you weighed that, and how you really worked with the department to better understand what would be a good fit for all those work.

50:45Yes, thank you. So we had a number of conversations specifically with our Investigations Division as well through my leadership, and they really had to do a deep dive and try to look at how long after the AOPR, you know,

50:58is it being looked into and what that looks like? And so a lot of it for us was hovering around 30 days. When AOPR was initially started and we said we had it at the two-year time period, the decision then was made around

51:12how long can data be stored just from an IT perspective? And that was where the decision was. And it hadn't evolved to such a space at this time. And so it is very hard in our current system to do a historical perspective and look to get the exact numbers.

51:29And so a lot of that had to be done through conversations with our Investigations Division. And so it's weighing that because this technology is really great when it comes to our investigative. And the same, hearing concerns from community members

51:42and just really looking at what's going on nationally. How can we balance these things? What seems to be that right balance? And so taking all of those things into account was what was in that decision.

51:56You also touched on data sharing. And there was an article written about Kansas City, Kansas and how much their data was used maybe by Texas law enforcement. I think a lot of people have concerns about data sharing

52:08and how we share the data with other entities. Could you speak to that a little bit more? Yep. Currently right now we do not have any MOUs with any agencies from a data sharing agreement. If a serious crime were to happen in a neighborhood

52:21and jurisdiction and they called and said, "Can you check your AOPRs for this vehicle?" We now require a written documentation associated with that. And so that way there's a tracking mechanism to ensure exactly what that agency is looking for

52:34and everything else. And so data sharing agreements should be robust and should be with agencies to me and the surrounding jurisdiction as crime has no jurisdictional boundaries and goes back and forth.

52:46And so until MOUs can be established and those decisions can be made, currently right now we do not share with any law enforcement agencies. MOU is a memo of understanding. Yes, sir. Thank you. So it's a legal document that basically puts boundaries

53:00and controls around the data. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Thank you for that. I'll open up to the committee. I'm sure they have a number of questions as well. We'll start off with Council Member Lawson. Thank you.

53:10Thank you, Chief. I made you for the thorough presentation. A couple of questions. There's been a lot of criticism about flock cameras. The city looked into multiple vendors before choosing one. What are the differences between flock ALPR cameras

53:25and Genetec and Axon? And why do you think one vendor has more criticism over another? I would be speaking out of turn if I was speaking specificity on a camera system that we currently don't own or operate.

53:41And so I don't have the details on the flock camera system per se, but when I look at the camera systems that we have, I look at safeguards, governance, and accountability metrics with it. I also look at it, I say through a lens, Council Member, almost vendor agnostic.

54:05It may be one vendor today and in six months, maybe it's a different vendor. And so if I can ensure safeguards are in place with the current systems in which we have, then it's a vendor agnostic decision,

54:17and then safeguards will be there for community members as well. Another question. If you could pull up the page that had the Axon search, please. And I would say with our data too, we own our own data.

54:31Right. You mentioned that. Yes. During all my visits. With the hit or the search part? The search. Yes. Okay. So I saw in there that there's a field for additional details. Can you give us examples of additional details

54:48that can be used for our search? Well, I think if we're searching, so you're going to have to have an offense category. That's going to be a drop down box. And there's going to be certain offenses that it has to be related to.

54:57So you'll have to pick an offense as approved by the command staff to do a search. Then you'll have your case number or CAD number put in there. So it's nothing related to a vehicle. It's tied to a case.

55:12It's merely going to be tied to, it could be a stolen auto where we put vehicle details in there. That it's a red color Ford car or Ford pickup truck. You can put vehicle details as color make model in there as well.

55:26If you look on the right side of it for the vehicle details. And it's going to have your timeframe that you're searching for. You want to look for a specific time that you're doing. So it's going to have those type of things and it's going to have some details.

55:38This is a robbery case. This is a missing person investigations with some details in it. Some of those details are just for going to jump in. Yeah. You could just come right up. It's asking you to come to the table.

55:52Yeah. That way we can. We have one of our technology detectives that has. Awesome. Thank you. My name is Jerry Schmidt. I'm a detective in the police technology unit. I've been in the unit since it was founded in 2002.

56:05So the three systems that we have access to, each are a little bit different softwares. Each have different options. The one you're asking about the additional features would be a top rack or window sticker.

56:17You're going to select that. It's going to try and find it. When you do that stuff, it's important to keep in mind that at night, it's not going to work very well. On the winter after it snows, everybody's car is gray, that type of thing.

56:30So it's a, it's a chance to maybe find it, but it's not here. Thank you. Keep going. Other questions. Thank you for the thorough presentation and much back and forth over months on this topic. And I really appreciate what you said about trust being earned.

56:49And I think that your willingness to engage in this conversation, to make changes to the policy, I think goes a long way towards building that trust. So thank you. I wanted to start with some questions about audits.

57:04Could you talk about what some of the data is that you is contained in an audit? And then there may be sort of a term of art of what an audit means to you, but what data you're going to be sharing with the community that

57:21we might think of as sort of a community level audit. Yeah. So the audits we're checking, it has to have a case number or CAD number in the office. So if it doesn't have that in it, it gets flagged and it's automatically further investigated.

57:36Then you have to have a reason that's very specific. What type of crime it is, what type of case you're working very specific reason for that. And then some of them require even other categories. The time range must be in there that you're searching for.

57:52The audit is going to check and see does it have the proper information. And then it's also going to check 1% of all searches that are done that are said to be valid searches, meaning that it didn't have any disparities in it.

58:08And then we'll be able to know if people are putting the right information in for the audit. And those are going to be done internally by other members of the Oakland Park Police Department. Is that right?

58:21That is correct. I've heard some suggestions that instead there would be a desire on the part of some folks to have an independent third party audit. Are you open to that? As I had stated in the process,

58:35unfortunately right now there's no third party audit. The information contained in these searches are related to criminal investigation. So turning the data over would be potentially see just violations.

58:46And so there's a number of audits we do and inspections within a police department outside of technology that our police department runs. And those audits and those reports get turned into me. So unfortunately some of the stories that have been in the news have

58:59been where it's a chief or a sheriff, the head of a law enforcement agency who's the one misusing a system. So how do we as your counsel and how do members of the public, we think you're great, but again,

59:14that trust is built through these accountability measures. So how do we square an audit that's accountable to you when there are instances documented of folks in exactly your position of using that power to misuse these systems?

59:30No, I appreciate the question. Overland Park Police Department is a nationally accredited organization. One of the CLIA standards associated with that is if there's any wrongdoing on behalf of the chief police,

59:40my department outside of any chain of command has directed 40 to go to the city manager or any other person in position of leadership to report that. I don't necessarily need a national standard for my team to do it.

59:52I would hope they would step out and be able to know that they could do that even if it wasn't a standard that we currently comply with. We appreciate that. Another question I had received was about the data. You mentioned we own it. Is that stored in a cloud or is that on-prem data?

01:00:14Go ahead, Terry. Yeah, you know, pure web data is stored on servers and by IT physical servers in the IT environment. The Exxon is stored in the Exxon cloud along with all of our other companies. Let's see just in this one.

01:00:32Thank you. Could you clarify again? You said that we don't currently have MOUs with other agencies, but I thought you had previously said that we share our fixed site needs with other Kansas City agencies.

01:00:46We did previously share our fixed sites as we are going through the research. It showed that there should be formal agreements with all of those. And so while we're working through that process, it has all been removed.

01:00:56And so a number of these are just occurring. Does that make sense? So that would be one. So you're correct. We previously did. Okay, thanks. And as part of that MOU process, will you be expecting other departments who want to share our data to have the same policies in terms of retention audits and then these other transparency and accountability provisions?

01:01:20I would not be able to put stipulations on other police departments or cities or city governance associated with it. But I feel strongly about our police department and our city governance within. So the MOUs would be outlined by our police legal advisor in regards to it.

01:01:35But I wouldn't know necessarily what their policy is in regards to their retention, but it would be our data. Okay, so it doesn't get shared and shared. How about policies about who has access, who has the ability to do reads and and qualitative?

01:01:56That would be up to each individual police department to show who would have access in it. They would have to be trained individuals for law enforcement purposes. And so with different agencies having different people in different positions, I wouldn't even be able to speak to who they would grant that access to.

01:02:12I think there probably would be opportunities to choose to only sign agreements with departments that have similarly high standards. So I would urge our team to look for opportunities to only partner with agencies that have similarly high standards.

01:02:28I think that's really great feedback. I appreciate that. I do like that the idea that understanding what their controls are and how it matches up to ours. I'm looking at Terry through your head over to Legal Counsel Blevins.

01:02:46Thank you, Melissa. Thank you. Councilman Bremmer. Thank you, Chief, for the presentation. Jenkins. I really appreciate this review of our technology and what we do with our data. This is a topic that is on top of mind for a lot of people around the country, not just in Overland Park.

01:03:10My now 18 year old has a very a lot of passionate thoughts about this, but I also feel like he's taking in a lot of social media and it's very upsetting to hear how other communities are using this new technology. So I'm once again, comforted that Overland Park is creating such a high standard for officers on a technology that we've had for quite a long time.

01:03:34And it's refreshing to hear that we are using it in such a responsible way and trying to be really great stewards of our residents information and privacy. I just got back from the Kansas League of Municipalities. So a lot of city staff and city council and city managers all come together and we talk about, you know, big issues that are facing all of our cities. Of course, we're talking about housing and we're talking about data centers.

01:04:07And we're talking about flat cameras and smaller communities are actually very excited to have some of this technology because they are solving real cases with smaller staff. And so they are really able to use this technology to help really solve crimes and seeing the real advantages of it. And of course since I come from Overland Park, that gives me a lot of anxiety for their residents and how and if they are being as careful as we are being for our residents.

01:04:44So I am feeling very confident about how we're handling this just in the realm of license plate raters, not regular cameras out in the community, looking at faces and monitoring activity. So I feel that we're doing a really great job and really trying to explain what we're doing and how we're doing it and doing it in such a way to prevent and protect our residents as best we can.

01:05:12We are trying to grapple with some really big new technologies and how to be really conscientious with it. So I appreciate the conversation about how we do that. Do you see a world where we might consider other forms of camera use in our community?

01:05:30Yeah, I think it continues to develop. Again, when I got hired on a 98, if I would have known, we would be wearing bodyboard cameras that can translate languages so quickly and those type things. I wouldn't have even guessed how it was going to evolve. Policing, just in my short of 30 years, has been a whirlwind of change. And I think if you're not evolving with technology, you're definitely becoming obsolete.

01:05:56But I also think Maya Angela probably said it best, when you know better, you should do better. And that means sometimes things get implemented and things change. And so we always have to make sure that just because it was always done one way doesn't mean that's the best way now.

01:06:09And so to those points of balancing of those things, you know, I often say, and you've heard me say, I want people to run to us for help and not run away. And so we have to balance the thoughtful governance piece, which also great technology that can help with solving crime and understanding that there has been misconduct and use and a LPR and different other technology as well.

01:06:31And so I appreciate your feedback. Yeah, it's really interesting because like you don't want to hamstring yourself for something that comes along that actually might help in, you know, very specific kind of way.

01:06:41Yeah, I also want to thank you for such a thorough presentation. Thank you so much for actually spearheading the charge of bringing technology into policing. I think data is always good because it allows us to be more objective, not less objective, kind of remove subjectivity from from the equation when you're trying to solve crimes, you can actually point to something objectively visible or provable.

01:07:08Having said that, are there cases or what is the likelihood that some of this technology could go sideways where it misreads a license plate and innocent people are then targeted or stopped or are there incidents of this?

01:07:21Is it common, uncommon? What's what's the likelihood of something like that? It does misread license plate sometimes or it gets a license plate and it has the wrong state on it because it just it just reads the letters or the numbers on it. So that's why it's so important for the officer or the person running the information to verify what they're looking at.

01:07:44Because when you get that alert on there, you have to verify, OK, this is the tag. This is the tag. And it does that. It does that sometimes it misread. So that's why the human verification is one of the most important parts of this.

01:07:59And you wouldn't just make a stop based on an alert that came from the LPR alert reader. You would have to verify it first because we know for a fact that it misread sometimes or it gives you the state information.

01:08:16I was just going to say thank you for your comment and feedback, too, as well, knowing that technology can be concerning for people is another reason when we opened the real time information center. We opened up to our entire community and gave public tours down there, too, to answer questions in regards to what that looks like. And so it's just another step of making sure that our our community knows exactly what we're doing and that we're here for their service.

01:08:41Thank you. That's another chance. Thanks. You mentioned that currently we have coverage on just half of one tenth of a percent of our roadways. Do you have a target level of coverage? Are you looking to increase that coverage?

01:08:58That's a really great question in the future. I would love to move our camera systems to an excellent integrated approach. And that's why I really wanted to highlight the search features that are exactly in there.

01:09:11There could be room and discussion for expansion. We have a very large city, but right now what I'm looking at is trying to find a more robust system. I believe we have one and that's why we're demoing those cameras with it. That is easier when it comes to transparency as well.

01:09:28And so I think we can look at those discussions, but I would never do something without making sure that everyone understands what's happening. So you do want to expand the coverage, I think, eventually.

01:09:42Thank you. The president asked if it's possible for a resident to submit a query to find out if their license plate has been searched. So if someone. So under the Kansas Open Records Act, two things are not an open record. One is the actual license reads and one is the location of the readers.

01:10:03And I think the legislature did that. So individual people can't stock other people. And that's why they say it's not an open record. It's restricted to law enforcement access only. And so that would mean if I was worried that my ex was stalking me, I couldn't. And he was a police officer. I couldn't find out if I had been read.

01:10:28No, but if you had a reason to believe that your ex who's a police officer was misusing that system, you can file a complaint with the department and we could go in there and find his reads and see if he was doing that and go from there.

01:10:44Thank you. I want to turn to the slide that showed the draft dashboard. I think this goes also to some of the questions about transparency. So I had found on the website that the major city's chief's association, which was one you said you had referenced, recommended that agencies collect and report the following data points. And maybe you can just show me if they're on here or if you're expecting them in our dashboards. I know this is just a mock up.

01:11:20And I can read this email to you. Okay, great. No problem. So the department currently utilizes the two separate systems that we own, Axon and Genetech. Axon is currently working to integrate all where it's into a system for a live transparency dashboard. And I say live because I don't know what the turnaround time is. Does that really mean 30 minutes? Does that mean an hour? As you know, it's still in progress.

01:11:42And so I'm trying to get the Genetech reads into a system that's going to go in this as well. Axon already has that system. And so it's all going to go together. So the first one is number of detections. Yes, Axon's Transparency Dashboard will report the number of license plate reads. And so that was the first bullet.

01:12:00The number of hot place hits. Yes, Axon's Transparency Dashboard will report the number of hot list plates retained. The next one was number of queries conducted by users. Yes, once all ALPR data is fully transitioned into Axon, we will be able to report query metrics accurately.

01:12:18The next one was number of arrests directly related to ALPR. This metric is not currently tracked because an ALPR alert does not independently constitute probable cause, nor can an arrest be tied solely to an ALPR reader.

01:12:31It is an investigative tool. So actually bullet number four, I need to learn more about how they're capturing that data piece. The fifth bullet, number of user generated hot plates. We currently track this manually for our audits. The current count is zero. Once fully transitioned into Axon, the reporting metrics will then be automatic.

01:12:52And then the last bullet is breakdown of hot plates hit types. This data is currently collected and will be included in the Axon Transparency Portal Once Live, which I'm optimistic will be done by the end of this year.

01:13:03Once that's done, we will be releasing a cross release and announcing this similar to that we did with the drones as well. Thank you. And my sense is that the hot plates, I think maybe people have a little more comfort with the idea that there's there's some bad guy on the loose or maybe, you know, you're missing person, which is not a bad guy, but just someone who is who is missing.

01:13:28There you go. Apologies. And but that the idea of the folks who are going in and doing the historic searches, I think also creates a lot of concern. So I guess that that would be embodied in this number of theories. But I think that's something to maybe just keep an extra eye on is are there other metrics there.

01:13:51And one of the conversations I had with Axon was can you trigger if an individual has to your point, read the same plate several times because that's what you're seeing nationally if someone is coming after someone or looking for some, they're putting

01:14:10the same plate in a number of times. And so that is one of the audit features they're trying to build out. Now, just because an officer I would say would be triggered on whatever number we put in. And that would be valid reasons, right, but it would be a metric to tee up to say we should look into these. And so I've already had that conversation with them and they are trying to build that in as well.

01:14:31So I appreciate that. Any more questions. Thank you. Well, thank you again for this presentation. I'm sure that I appreciate all the work that if I can just add one piece, I would be remiss if I did not thank the many people within my police department that helped read the research, write the policy, build the presentation.

01:14:57I was actually very, very excited to present to you all tonight because as you can hear with my conviction in my voice I really believe this can not only be a model policy for the state of Kansas, but across the United States.

01:15:09And so I had my chief of staff very heavily involved our administrative analyst Morgan as well building stuff out my deputy chiefs are members in technology, our police legal advisor, and major Jenkins, it was definitely a team effort.

01:15:23And I'm very, very appreciative for all the work that they did for a department and for our community. Great. Okay, let's move the action items the first action item number four approval of minutes. Josh if you'd like to take a motion on them.

01:15:42I move that they approve the minutes from the public safety meetings. And July 8, 2026. Motion second, all in favor say aye. Thank you. All right, then now we're gonna move into a cooperative agreement section.

01:16:04And then I'll pause as folks come to the table here. So with this is these major. Zach Stevens. Why don't you describe the property of agreement that we're going to be looking into, and then I will then walk us into a public hearing. Yeah. Good evening chair and members.

01:16:32Now I've got some prepared comments that come in asking for. Yeah, thanks. Good evening. My name is Zach Stevens I'm a major police department I'm joined this evening by my colleague, our business operations manager Mr. Mark.

01:16:45We are here today to present our proposed application for the 2026 Edward burn Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, also known as the JAG program to find the little part police departments, he by patrol expansion project.

01:16:59The proposed statutory formula of the park is eligible for direct sub allocation of $42,850. Importantly the grant does not require any local cost sharing or funding match from the city. As part of the grant appliance process our application must be submitted for review to this governing body no less than 30 days prior to our final certification proposal focuses on expanding our capabilities and our most unique spaces.

01:17:25Our patrol vehicles are the essential backbone of our daily operations, effective policing areas in our areas like downtown farmer's market trail network requires a specialized supplementary. He bikes perfectly compliment our patrol fleet by giving officers the ability to seamlessly navigate spaces where a vehicle access is naturally restricted, ensuring rapid emergency response times regardless of the train to patrol these areas we currently rely on a limited bicycle fleet.

01:17:56This includes two electric bicycles alongside aging conventional manual bikes relying on manual bicycle subjects are officers to physical exertion, particularly during belong controls hot weather or uphill trail navigation.

01:18:09Our patrol can diminish an officer's readiness to handle strenuous incidents or emergency calls upon arrival, operating with only two e-bikes constrains our deployment capacity across the city. Solve this, we intend to use the full $42,850 allocation to procure the following equipment.

01:18:26Eight direct service electric police bicycles, eight emergency lighting systems to Rocky mounts bike racks, and the investment will expand our bike or e-bike fleet from two to 10 units. He bikes provide a highly approachable venue for community engagement by complimenting our patrol cars, e-bikes place officers directly in shared spaces, creating more opportunities for face to face contacts proactive safety discussions with local merchants and residents.

01:18:56Finally, the program is sustainable. We already have trained personnel who provide a foundation for the for the implementation current department staff will receive specialized mechanical training to handle routine inspections and minor repairs in house.

01:19:09They'll receive maximizing their our operational uptime. We will rigorously track the success of the project by logging our patrol hours, recording deployment locations and monitoring self initiate activities and calls for service dispatch to our e-bike units.

01:19:22In conclusion, the project directly aligned to the safe and healthy neighborhood strategic goal. It strengthens our crime prevention capacity and significantly enhances our visible presence in areas standard patrol vehicles cannot readily reach.

01:19:35I appreciate your time, and we would be happy to answer any questions the committee has regarding this project or our JAG application. Great. Thank you. And with this program, what we do is we open a public hearing to officially hear from the public.

01:19:50We're seeking public comments regarding the Overland Park Police Department's application for use the funds granted under the 26 Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, JAG, in the amount of 42,854, eight e-bikes.

01:20:05So I will now open up the public hearing and hear from anybody wants to provide comment about the e-bike acquisition. Anybody want to ask questions or provide any feedback about the acquisition using the JAG funds.

01:20:26Okay, I will close the public hearing, hearing nobody to respond there. So, thank you. With that, I'll ask the committee here if they have any questions. It is in the packet. You can press the e-bike hyperlink and in front of you is this truck service service of the model.

01:20:49It's a great looking e-bike very streamlined fenders disc brakes. It looks like a fantastic. So, Councilman Grummer you have a question. Yes, thank you for the presentation. I am super excited about this I probably have been thinking about expanding the bicycle program for seven years.

01:21:12So how are we, the new modifications for the bikes, how will they look different than regular e-bikes out on the road. They should look the same, other than they'll have police branding on them, and they will have police equipment on them to such as red and blue lights emergency lights and so they will be actually designated as emergency vehicles via campus.

01:21:33So then will they have a different people they have an alarm on them, or they'll have a siren on them as well. It's not very menacing if I may add. They do stop that I have stopped people on a bicycle, I will say, just questions. And then how will officers be wearing, you know, different kinds of.

01:21:55I recently redesigned our bike uniform with our current uniform vendor which is blower. And so we are actually going to be utilizing user officers input heavily. We're going to be using our standard patrol shirt and they just get a pair of bike pants that are zip offs.

01:22:16So they have the option to go short pants depending on what they're most comfortable. And then, will they have regular patrol or this will be like a special units for like events or will you have like special bike patrols for trail I mean I think about trails and how we are really, you know, enhancing that.

01:22:36They'll be above. Okay, so we've recently used, I mean we have been using our manual bikes at events like certainly like fourth of July and fall festival for a lot of years I've been part of that myself.

01:22:47And it's, I'll tell you what, it's really great about the bike is especially when we can put our officers out in the trails just on routine patrol. It was never a dull moment when I got to get out of the trails, and we'll just say assist people were needed.

01:23:02So it was, but now with the bikes and the bikes we can cover a lot more ground works you know certainly some of the spaces that have been built up, just during my career, to mention Prairie Fire and Park and Blue Hawk and those areas and being able to patrol

01:23:16those on bikes I think would be really great. Instead, expanding from just the trail network per se in downtown which is, but you know even during FIFA, we were able to get our bikes out and we just got really positive feedback from the community and the residents and the merchants that are out there.

01:23:32This is really super exciting so I also have high hopes for the mounted police unit that I'm sure will come later. I'll pepper that one over to chief. Mounted are you talking about forces, is that what you're talking about. Yes, that is usually what amount of police forces.

01:23:53All my questions. Moving forward. Councilman. Yes, I was wondering, he seemed very excited about the bike does the chair committee get to test drive. I appreciate that I'm a cyclist. I have seen our officers use these at temporary fire and downtown over the park and it's very welcoming, you know when you see a bike, and you also sense that they can move through crowds very quickly.

01:24:25The things we find at the these events, and some of our just, you know, locations, think of the Arboretum how much square miles is out there, the ability to quickly dispatch and deploy and be on scene is, is really a great advantage.

01:24:41Having that many more e bikes and having the back capability up to 20 miles an hour from that mistaken. Yeah, that's what I've got here. He's going to be very bad. Thanks for thanks for the God there.

01:24:55Our officers all trained through what's called a pemba which is international police police Mount bike Association and heavy portion of that training is slow speed maneuvers to do just what you said which is maneuvering through crowds and I'll tell you, having completed that training myself, it was perhaps the most difficult training I've been through.

01:25:11And that's the slow speed maneuvers are critically important and they are the most difficult to go slow, it is hard to go slow. Any other questions about the e bikes and the burn ground. They're assisted up to 20 minute 20 miles an hour. Human can power faster they can go faster down downhill, but the assistance 28 miles.

01:25:37Is that faster than on the squidgers out south. I wouldn't know. They're not emotos. They're e bikes. So, that'll be the next thing maybe rather than a mountain, meaning horses, maybe we'll end up buying some emotos.

01:25:55Real thoroughbreds. Great. So good. All right, let me look at my staff report here. I think there might be emotion that we'd put in play. Let's see. Yeah, if you know by making the most. I move the committee recommend the city council approval of the corporate agreement for the FY 2026 Edward burn Memorial Jack program local solicitation from the US Department of Justice and purchase a truck electric police bikes with associate equipment utilizing the FY 2026 Edward

01:26:27burn Memorial Justice Assistance Grant or Jack program, local solicitation grant funds, the amount of $42,850. We have a motion second any comments, all in favor say aye. Opposed. Okay, that passes. Sure if I may add just for transparency purposes.

01:26:47When we get this money is always a moving party. And depending on the price of commodities and goods. Whenever we get the money, the cost of bikes could potentially go up. If that happened, we would scale our purchase back. I just want to put that out for transparency that I didn't want to end up buying seven and having after having told you we would buy.

01:27:09Yeah, the Guinness prices have stabilized a little while they're moving targets. Okay, thank you. Appreciate it. All right, we'll step into the next action item number six. Second Amendment to lease. This has to do with a facility that we use for the op cat.

01:27:33Tony Rome is facilities director and is joining us and major students remains. Mr. Chair member of the committee. Thanks for having me again for the present this item. So just a little bit of a background. The city council approved the mental health behavior unit and November 2021 due to the space limitations within the police department that we previously discussed in December of a year.

01:27:59The city council approved leasing of the office space at Santa Fe building. How's the Overland Park crisis action team or op cat. The original term of the lease was for a period of five years time flies. So, and 2027 it was expected to expire.

01:28:19We had some thoughts about moving the op cat unit to some vacant space at the Byron skate building on the street. And so, city attorney Blevins and I worked to extend the lease for a year to give us time to move the people out, renovate before we can move them in.

01:28:44So that was done that was signed by the city manager because it was only one year and the monetary. Shortly thereafter, we bought a city hall, which makes the future of Byron skate and this city hall, just uncertain. We don't know what we're going to do with either the buildings right now.

01:29:06And so, rather than move forward with the plan to move them to the basement of a building that is uncertain. The chief and I decided to hit the pause button on that and dedicate the resources we had to the Sanders justice center more certain vacant space.

01:29:31And then we, we do plan to do an analysis of these two buildings don't have a definitive year but sometime in the 29 to 30 timeframe. And so, we entered into negotiations to extend the lease for an additional three years which would bring us to January of 2031, and they were happy to continue to have us there.

01:29:57And the agreement I'm bringing to you tonight does extend it it's about 3000 square feet, and it'll extend until January 2031, to give us a chance to get maybe a little bit more firm, putting on on our future plans not only for escape but for.

01:30:17You know what that looks like in three years, near and dear to my heart just so you know my wife is a lifelong mental health worker she worked bring up here. So it's just personally I must face that I can.

01:30:31My daughter is also in school to be a mental health worker so near and dear my son share that with you all. With that being said, we're here to talk about the least not my wife. And I'm here here to ask you for approval of the second amendment to lease with Santa Fe building for $157,000 and change. Yeah, take any questions, we'll take some questions.

01:30:57operationally, there's no need to have op cats separate from the mainstream operations of the department right this was just something we needed to put them over there just from a space consideration.

01:31:09We have some initial discussions about the opportunity to see consumers of their services off site and away from the police building. I wonder, I'm not sure that that has come to fruition quite like we originally imagined.

01:31:22So, I would say at this time that is not a pressing thing. We see a lot of our consumers of those services out the field, correct go where they are. You do that very well. So, okay, great. Thank you. Other questions we might have remind me we're going to have some new place space with the training center is back and results in vacant space, and how's that going to be used.

01:31:47Yeah, so some of the vacant space is located in Sanders Justice Center. The two training rooms training room and be a portion of the professional services. I don't know all the division I'm sorry but professional standards unit are being vacated. And so we're going to actually repurpose those spaces with some renovations we're doing next year, after we finish the training building, the other spaces that are being vacated

01:32:14are in the basement of scale, the Myron scale building, they're a little less attractive spaces they're in the middle of a basement access to daylight there. It was the armory and some of the units where you don't need daylight right.

01:32:28And, and so those spaces are going to be repurposed in a yet to be determined manner. Once we move out of out of the spaces. Yeah, there are there are several 1000 square feet of space space being vacated because of the new building, but they are not suited for the cat to utilize would say they are not polished.

01:32:53They've been used to clean weapons over time and store that kind of thing. And so yeah they're would not be suitable for those types of services, and I believe having an analysis done on the buildings to I've asked my team.

01:33:09If we move them over to the armory and have it repurposed. Would we have made that decision. If we kept, you know, skate and the upstairs was vacated, or would we have renovated things differently. They said, Well, we probably read renovate again. And so I said, Well, let's just pause, and then we can research what this looks like they're integrate space that's conducive with windows.

01:33:33So, it's kind of the analysis on the buildings that really, I appreciate it. Tony and the team's work of looking up where they could consolidate to and I also looked at, you know, making sure employees are in spaces that are welcoming and inviting and this is, I guess, five

01:33:51years from now, is there an opportunity to exit early if situation changes like there's just a lot. At least early. I think there is a chance I mean it is at least so we'd have to negotiate the breaking of the lease, just like, it's, it's five years from now.

01:34:12We extended it for that length of time because of the uncertainty of the movement to new see just the timing of all of that I mean we have a rough timeline but there is a lot of moving pieces in that process.

01:34:28And so we're, we're going to really really evaluate what we're going to do with these two buildings, probably in the 29 to 30 timeframe. And then even if we decide hey we're going to, we're going to use it.

01:34:39There are still our operations in the basement of scale that OP care centers there, various other offices are down there. And so we felt that this was, I mean a judgment call that this is the best length of time to, to extend it to, to get the best price, and we are paying about 75% of what they would charge someone coming into the real estate new.

01:35:10And so we're kind of getting a good deal for, they're getting a little bit more certainty about how we're going to get there, how we're going to be there. We're getting a little bit better deal, and it's actually a really nice, it is a nice, it is very welcoming very open, really close

01:35:25to scave walk between the buildings, and we have to maintain it positive. We do clean it but we don't that building maintains that space. But, but I think we just all agree that it was better to do that than to rush into judgment and spending

01:35:44$50 million to renovate space, we're going to buy all new furniture, build walls, move people new carpet, it was not just going to be a let's move dorm room furniture into this, you know, space and kind of occupied it was going to be a significant cost.

01:36:03Yeah, we'd be using our resources in place in a basement of a building that has an uncertain future. So the leases, the leases roll off anywhere from next year to all the way through 2034 is when if someone chooses to extend all the way

01:36:28to the end, they can be there until 2034. We're so early on in the design process that we parcels that are opening to us are not contiguous, they're just sort of around the building. And so, we, you know, we did, I am considering what to do with some of these spaces if we need to use them.

01:36:52At the end of the day, the cheapest, the most efficient place to have op cat is where we've chosen for all talking to the police for my purposes, for the purposes of other spaces. That's what we all feel is the best place to keep the least cost to the city.

01:37:15I just have a comment more than just affection, very wife's chosen profession. I think a unit that's been charged with mental health should be in a space, not a windowless space but a space that sort of reinforces the mission.

01:37:29So I'm all for having a beautiful space that have windows and everything else that we associate with having good mental health. I'm gonna piggyback on that, you know we're talking about furniture and cost and things like that but just pause for a second the fact that we have a crisis action team right that the city, the department the citizens value that, and we put that in place we

01:37:52never had that previously. And I think it's amazing that we that we have such, such a team staff. I know this is slightly off topic but we're not thinking about not having a station up north, like we're not going to close as a police station.

01:38:15I don't know about that building, per se, but it is very important to me in my team that we keep a presence. Alright with that, I'll take a motion. For the motion maybe have Mr. Rome that the name of the lease might look at P Roman numeral one.

01:38:34Okay, I move to recommend the city council approval of the second amendment to lease P I Santa Fe LLC for the lease of space for up cat and the amount of $157,000. Second, motion second, any comments, all in favor say aye. Opposed. Thank you. Thank you to appreciate your time.

01:38:59All right, the last item here is item number fourth bit tabulation, and we're going to welcome Bob Miller, who is supervisor of our fleet operations. So when you come here we get to talk about control vehicles, equipment, and take it over.

01:39:19Thank you chair members of the board members of the committee. Thank you. See a few faces here I think for those who don't know me and my name's Bob Miller, the main supervisor for the police department.

01:39:34And I'm here today to talk about. We had again this year we ran bids with bids out to the public for police equipment and the police cars, and that big tabulation came in, and K comic, who got that last year was the little bit this year for equipment and installation.

01:40:01We grouped them both together this year. And so what I'm here today is to just to ask for an approval first agreement amount, not to exceed $262,360 and two cents. The police department purchases vehicles every year. This year it's 13 for the 26 models vehicles are purchased, they have to be outfitted, and that with emergency lights sirens controls and all the things that are required for police work.

01:40:40The equipment can't be generally can't be reused unless it's the radio video system things like that. And the equipment specifications are created to ensure that our vehicles are standardized across the fleet.

01:40:56So, we conducted the formal bid process for the equipment and installation services used for the 13 vehicles purchase in the park as part of the 2026 equipment replacement budget. There are two responsive bidders, K com, again, located on Latha, who have done business with numerous times in the past several years.

01:41:20And so they won the bid, and the bid amount in this line item, the money's there for the, for the, for the but in the budget to make this purchase. We already have the cars they're sitting in the lot currently is correct. Okay. Remind me the types of cars that we're using these days we're not doing dodge, we're back to the floor, correct.

01:41:51Yeah, the word explore police interceptor units. The ones we've purchased for 2026 for hybrid models, or currently offers the hybrid models for the same price as the other models. So basically it's just a matter of which power train you want to purchase in your particular car.

01:42:12Okay. And then this is a bed for the installation of the equipment. Correct. Yeah, the equipment and installation. Yes, it's the equipment. Okay, any questions. My point of this new faces so it's great to meet you. Thanks for being here.

01:42:30Just look at the bid and sorry I didn't catch this before. I'm going to look deeper, but the, the high pro low pro there's sort of a division in the bit tabulation can you explain that the hype, like the traffic vehicles are low profile so they don't have the exterior lighting up above.

01:42:46It's tucked down inside and the headliner of the vehicle near the sun, the visors front rear deck. So we're going to the high pro base time for everything we're building this year is high pro kcom we just asked for the low profile bid in case say traffic car gets crashed we have to replace it sooner rather than later.

01:43:09We know at least what's going to cost us and those typically fall under the cost of a high profile vehicle. Any other questions. That's great. Okay. Josh has taken motion to recommend City Council approval to award the bid for police patrol vehicle equipment and installation services for 13 patrol vehicles to kcom Inc, and approval of an agreement with kcom of the equipment amount, not to exceed $262,360 and two cents.

01:43:39We have a motion a second, any comments, all in favor say aye. Opposed. And that concludes our meeting this evening. Thank you all very much.