Tulsa's Panasonic Infomercial

[patric]

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20120109_11_A1_Cityof148323

or, how do you make court-ordered dashcams look "très chic"?



City officials are investigating a possible ethics violation related to an online advertisement showing Tulsa police officers and a city employee promoting a computer system purchased for police cars.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAw_xB9-kiU&feature=player_detailpage[/youtube]

Yet as recent as three weeks ago they were complaining that compatibility issues were preventing the city from completing the installations:  "Willingham said the police have run into some logistical issues. The problem is with the computer that runs all the technological systems police use out in the field."

[patric]

Ethics investigation
At least one officer, project manager Cpl. Will Dalsing, talked with Sprint and Panasonic about paying for his travel to a public safety conference in Atlantic City in May 2011, records show.

Additionally, Dalsing and city IT operations manager Matt Parker organized and participated in a video and photo shoot in 2010 that was used after city approval as an advertisement for Sprint and Panasonic - the brands Tulsa chose for the new computer systems.

In 2009, police chose Sprint as the company to provide broadband Internet service to police cars.
A city purchasing official said the city went with an existing Sprint contract at a cost of almost $300,000 per year if outfitted on all 575 police vehicles in accordance with the project's plans.
Project managers chose Sprint despite 2009 bids from Sprint, AT&T and Verizon in which Sprint was not the cheapest, costing about 10 percent more than AT&T's bid, according to the bid documents.

In 2010, the city awarded a contract worth about $4 million to buy Panasonic video cameras to install alongside the Panasonic computers. An ethics complaint about the Panasonic and Sprint advertisement led to an internal investigation. Police have not revealed whether they've reached any conclusions from the investigation.
Tulsa Police Capt. Jonathan Brooks confirmed the TPD internal investigation is ongoing.

Records show Dalsing was taken off the project and transferred in January to a new department after developing the project for several years. City officials also confirmed Parker was taken off the project but remains working for the city of Tulsa information technology department.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20120603_11_A1_CUTLIN136616

[sgrizzle]

The story is the computers are too slow and the internet access sucks. AT&T tested better and cost less but they went with Sprint.

Also, there is a case where you need to go with Panasonics in vehicles because they are rugged. Police cars are not one of those cases.

[patric]

The story is the computers are too slow and the internet access sucks. AT&T tested better and cost less but they went with Sprint.

Also, there is a case where you need to go with Panasonics in vehicles because they are rugged. Police cars are not one of those cases.

They recently switched to Verizon, which isnt very established in Oklahoma.
Even if the computers hadnt been outdated by the time they bought them, they certainly would have been by the time they were installed.

The Arbitrator 360 camera system can run on it's own (without the computer), yet they still suspended installing them as well.
Still a lot of blowing smoke...