Gentle Councilmembers,
I read with great interest the news of the public ALPR study session you held with Chief Norris during the September 26 City Council meeting.
First, I concur with your guidance to the chief deferring or delaying any proposals to implement ALPRs in Menlo Park.
Second, I’d like to propose at least three criteria to be met before any future consideration of such a system in our city:
a. False positives must be reasonably avoided. The proposed system must have a demonstrated license plate recognition accuracy of above 95%. Demonstration would be achieved by a statistical analysis by a third party of at least 2 consecutive years of data and pertinent reports.
b. Competitive proposals are necessary. At least 3 ALPR systems must be offered to the City, each using different hardware and software, in fixed price bids. These systems must use the same scope of coverage and reporting as proposed by the MPPD. Both the contracted initial installation and training costs shall be considered along with fixed-price 5 year operating costs.
c. The City will adopt only the lowest bid and will add other normal cost protections to the contract so as to avoid City budget surprises.
I apologize for any proposed criteria that duplicate those that any Councilmembers or staff already have proposed. I was unavailable to listen to more than about half of Chief Norris’ presentation and more than two of the public commenters on the 26th.
Thank you for your kind consideration.
Best regards,
Rich Wipfler
1045 Valparaiso Ave.
(Downtown) Menlo Park
