City Manager Bill Emlen Acknowledges Problem with Police In-Car Recording System

By David GreenwaldDecember 15, 20064 comments
Last week, the People’s Vanguard of Davis reported that the police in-car digital recording system was not working properly.

The city had not come forward with this information despite knowing about it for apparently quite some time.

Finally, at the last city council meeting this past Tuesday, Councilmember Lamar Heystek asked Bill Emlen for an update on this problem after the problem was raised during public comments.

Emlen acknowledged that there was a problem and that they were trying to fix the problem. Lt. Darrin Pytel was working on it as well.

Councilmembers Heystek and Souza both requested that this information be agendized at a future meeting.

It remains of concern the lengths that have to be taken to get the city to acknowledge such problems. It is unclear whether the members of the City Council were aware of the problem prior to this meeting. Anytime there is a significant expenditure of public money, it is incumbent upon the city staff to update the City Council who are the elected representatives of the public, particularly when significant and expensive problems arise.

This brings up the question–what other problems are there with technology and other expenditures that we do not know about?

Please view the brief video of from the council meeting.

—Doug Paul Davis reporting

Author

  • David Greenwald

    Greenwald is the founder, editor, and executive director of the Davis Vanguard. He founded the Vanguard in 2006. David Greenwald moved to Davis in 1996 to attend Graduate School at UC Davis in Political Science. He lives in South Davis with his wife Cecilia Escamilla Greenwald and three children.

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4 comments

  1. What other problems are there with technology? How about this one? At least two years ago the Parks and Rec Dept. instituted a system for swim pool passes that featured hand held barcode readers- that have never worked. So now lap swimmers still get a plastic tag with a barcode on it but the lifeguard has to record your barcode number manually. I wonder how much those readers cost?

  2. What other problems are there with technology? How about this one? At least two years ago the Parks and Rec Dept. instituted a system for swim pool passes that featured hand held barcode readers- that have never worked. So now lap swimmers still get a plastic tag with a barcode on it but the lifeguard has to record your barcode number manually. I wonder how much those readers cost?

  3. What other problems are there with technology? How about this one? At least two years ago the Parks and Rec Dept. instituted a system for swim pool passes that featured hand held barcode readers- that have never worked. So now lap swimmers still get a plastic tag with a barcode on it but the lifeguard has to record your barcode number manually. I wonder how much those readers cost?

  4. What other problems are there with technology? How about this one? At least two years ago the Parks and Rec Dept. instituted a system for swim pool passes that featured hand held barcode readers- that have never worked. So now lap swimmers still get a plastic tag with a barcode on it but the lifeguard has to record your barcode number manually. I wonder how much those readers cost?

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