PCD 1467 Body Worn Video (BWV) Digital Evidence Contract Renewal

PCD 1467 Body Worn Video (BWV) Digital Evidence Contract Renewal

Body worn video has been routinely used in frontline policing roles since 2016. Following an extension, the original contract with Axon expires on 15 August 2023. This paper seeks approval to award a new ten-year contract with Axon.   

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:   

1. Approve the direct award to Axon Public Safety UK Limited via a value-added reseller of contract for Video Management Solution and Body Worn Video Hardware for a term of ten years with options to exit after years 4 and 7, and a total contract value of £49m.     

2. Consider that the cost of licensing and support will be funded from existing MOPAC approved DDaT revenue budget. There is currently no identified budget for the cost of refreshing the hardware. This will need to be considered in the context of overall budget priorities within the Medium Term Financial Plan.  

PART I - NON-CONFIDENTIAL FACTS AND ADVICE TO THE DMPC 

1. Introduction and background  

1. To improve public confidence through improved accountability and transparency, body-worn video was introduced in the MPS in 2016.      

2. Following a competitive tender, the MPS entered into a managed service contract with the supplier Axon to provide 19,000 cameras for officers plus 3,000 flex cameras for firearms officers for a three year period after which it was agreed that the contract would be extended and all the cameras would receive a technology refresh.    

3. The contract extension (Dec 2019) and camera refresh provided the Met with an updated model with improved features many of which were introduced as a result of recommendations made by the UK BWV user group.    

4. Since the introduction of BWVs the MPS have captured and uploaded over 18 million recordings and share over 10,000 evidence files on Axon’s cloud storage platform Evidence.com on a weekly basis with the Crown Prosecution Services (CPS). Being able to share digital evidence in this way has resulted in great time and efficiency savings for the MPS.  

5. Issues for consideration 

6. Directly awarding a contract to Axon via a value-added reseller on the Health Trust Europe Framework complies with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.    

7. It is not operationally feasible or economically practical to transition to an alternative provider due to the significant cost of change and risk to policing operations which would be required to shift away from the evidence.com platform. Any ensuing transition would be on a par with a major IT project, requiring significant design, planning, resource and re-training and likely to take a number of years.    

8. In addition the risk of not being able to access and transmit data as the MPS has been (e.g. sharing of evidence with the CPS via Axon Evidence.com) and ensuing risk to policing operations and related court cased would be significant. 

9. The use of body worn videos supports the priority of ‘increasing trust and confidence’ in policing and allows the MPS to demonstrate accountability and transparency in policing actions.   

10. Financial Comments  

11. There is no funding implication in the core contract award request as it will be  

 funded from existing MOPAC approved DDaT revenue budget with annual inflation being funded from the centralised inflation budget.   

2. Further financial elements of this are contained in part 2 of the report.    

4. Legal Comments 

1. The Mayor's Office for Policing Crime is a contracting authority as defined in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 ("the Regulations").  All awards of public contracts for goods and/or services valued at £213,477 (inclusive of VAT) or above will be procured in accordance with the Regulations.  

2. Paragraph 4.13 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides that the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC) has delegated authority to approve all requests to go out to tender for contracts of £500,000 or above.  

3. Paragraph  7.23 of  the  MOPAC  Scheme  of  Delegation  and  Consent  provides that the Director of Strategic Procurement has consent for the approval of the award of all contracts, with the exception of those called in through the agreed call in procedure. 

4. MPS Legal Services have reviewed this request and confirmed that the use of the HealthTrust Europe LLP is compliant with procurement regulations. 

5. Commercial Issues  

1. The services will be procured via a Value Added Reseller on the HealthTrust Europe ICT Framework which is a compliant route to market and has been utilised by other police forces to contract for these services.   

6. GDPR and Data Privacy  

1. The MPS is subject to the requirements and conditions placed on it as a 'State' body to comply with the European Convention of Human Rights and the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018. Both legislative requirements place an obligation on the MPS to process personal data fairly and lawfully in order to safeguard the rights and freedoms of individuals.    

2. Under Article 35 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Section 57 of the DPA 2018, Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) become mandatory for organisations with technologies and processes that are likely to result in a high risk to the rights of the data subjects.    

3. The Information Assurance and Information Rights units within MPS have been consulted at all stages to ensure the service meets its compliance requirements.  

4. A DPIA has been completed for this service and remains under regular review. The MPS will continue to ensure a privacy by design approach, which will allow the MPS to find and fix problems at the early stages of any project, ensuring compliance with GDPR. DPIAs support the accountability principle, as they will ensure the MPS complies with the requirements of GDPR and they demonstrate that appropriate measures have been taken to ensure compliance.  

7. Equality Comments  

1. MOPAC is required to comply with the public sector equality duty set out in section 149(1) of the Equality Act 2010. This requires MOPAC to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations by reference to people with protected characteristics. The protected characteristics are: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. 

2. As this is a renewal of an existing service this work does not change any aspects relating to equality or diversity. 

8. Background/supporting papers 

None 

Part 2 – This section refers to the details of the Part 2 business case which is NOT SUITABLE for MOPAC Publication.   

 The Government Security Classification marking for Part 2 is:  

OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE [COMMERCIAL]  

 Part 2 of BWV Contract Renewal BJP is exempt from publication for the following reasons:  

•  Exempt under Article 2(2)(a) of the Elected Local Policing Bodies (Specified Information) Order 2011 (Data Protection Section 43 – Commercial Interests).  

 The paper will cease to be exempt upon completion of the contract. This is because the information is commercially sensitive and could compromise future procurement activity.