County Assists DPS By Purchasing EDR Equipment

March 12, 2023 - Shelby County Commissioners decided March 1, 2023, to move forward in assisting the Texas Department of Public Safety by supplying the funds for the purchase of a device to access a vehicle Event Data Recorder (EDR).

District Attorney Karren Price and Texas Department of Public Safety State Trooper Taylor Buster presented the Shelby County Commissioners with a proposal for equipment necessary for crash investigations.

“Each of you in your precinct can remember a wreck or an incident where, had we been able to download the box on the vehicle quickly, we might have a different result at the end of the day,” said Price.

Price described two main ways data is extracted from the EDR via a Crash Data Retrieval (CDR) with the first being by consent of the driver, and the other being a search warrant issued by a District Judge. She assured the commissioners there wouldn’t need to be a worry about an officer just accessing the EDR on a whim, because that would be a civil rights violation of the fourth amendment resulting in federal charges.

“DPS doesn’t buy these pieces of equipment for their own staff to use,” said Price. “Counties have to buy it, DPS is in charge of it, they keep custody care and control of it at all times. No one else in the county is able to do that, no one else in the county is certified to do that, to use that equipment.”

The equipment would be assigned to Trooper Buster for him to use, because Price said he is the only one in the county that will be certified and be responsible to use the equipment. Price said the proposed purchase will cover every make of vehicle with the exception of Kia and Hyundai. She said Nacogdoches County is buying the equipment which will work with Kia and Hyundai which will put it in a neighboring county.

That way neither county will have to carry the entire financial burden and, when necessary, the troopers can share the equipment. There is an annual fee for updates of software to the CDR. Price explained to the commissioners they would not have to bid for the equipment since Bosch is the only manufacturer of the CDR.

Trooper Buster explained there are several variables involved in the information gathered by the CDR from different vehicles.

“Toyota’s more diverse, it’s going to have a lot more data that’s collected,” said Trooper Buster.

According to Trooper Buster, there is a national standard that all vehicles must meet, and although the EDR is very much like a “black box” which would be included in an airplane that would be a misnomer because it doesn’t collect the exact same data.

“It’s not recording voice, it’s not recording like a airplane would record your cockpit and everything else,” said Buster.

He elaborated that the EDR is recording things like vehicle speeds, and whether brakes activated or not.

“Toyota before, I believe it was 2012 on a Toyota they had limits, they didn’t record speeds higher than 78.8 miles an hour,” said Trooper Buster. “The newer vehicles are recording higher speeds than that. You have some that when you plug into it it’s going to tell you that they were going 120-130 miles an hour. Now to go into court with that, we’re still going to use the math, but that gives us a checking point to where when I run the numbers on the side of the road from a skid mark and I download that, I’ve got something to give the District Attorney or the County Attorney in that case to back up the charges that we’re using as more evidence.”

Price interjected there currently is a case where the equipment used for extraction of data was second generation, and the vehicle being investigated was first generation, and there was a .03 difference in the math between that which Trooper Buster performed and the math of the device.

“The problem with the case, the difficulty in the proof of the case the evidence is that 78.[8 mph] is the highest that we record,” said Price. “The speedometer broke at 84 [mph], so the question is gonna be what was he really doing when the speedometer broke?”

She further explained speedometers don’t necessarily break at the highest speed, or indicate the exact highest speed of the vehicle. Price stated the new equipment will catch all of that data accurately every time.

Price further explained the CDR will remove the doubt in both criminal and civil cases involving liability when the deciding factor may be .03% of one mile per hour.

Trooper Buster shared there have been times when they have needed access to a CDR, and before the equipment could make it to Shelby County for use, enough time would pass so that the vehicle in question may have been crushed and cease to be available.

“It will benefit us, because we will have one that we will be able to collect the data and the evidence from the side of the road, or there shortly after that crash has occurred to where we will be able to prove our case,” said Trooper Buster.

The quote for the purchase includes an annual fee of $1,500 for yearly updates to software, this also had what is called a TEDR kit which is specific to Tesla and has a one time download of software for Tesla as well as cables, adapters, power to perform in-vehicle and direct to module downloads on Tesla Model 3, Y, S and X vehicles.

“On the Tesla they have no subscription annually, there is no annual renewal fees on the Tesla. Tesla says, ‘here is all of our cables, here is our box to download the Teslas,” said Buster.

He remarked there are many Teslas on Shelby County roads even now. Trooper Buster said the county, citizens as a whole and the city of Center will benefit from the purchase of the equipment.

A motion carried by the commissioners to use the remainder of the Coronavirus Relief funds for part of the purchase and to take the rest out of the contingency fund. The total amount on the quote was $32,625.

The commissioners considered a Resolution clarifying the closure of two portions of County Road 2794, containing 0.427 acres and 0.151 acres in Precinct 2 and adopting a 0.627 acre tract designated as County Road 2706, this Resolution will correct the Resolution adopted January 12. 2022.

“Mr. [John] Price, [County Attorney], has worked tirelessly on this to get this straightened out, but we’re going to have a good deed to that road,” said Judge Harbison.

County Attorney Price explained the adoption of the resolution will clear up the description from the January 2022 meeting where the item was approved as far as acceptance of the new road, but it will also close out those portions of County Road 2794 which will be abandoned.

“I think Commissioner [Jimmy] Lout has seen the road, and I’ve seen pictures of the road, they did an awfully good job constructing that new road down there,” said Price.

A motion carried by the commissioners to approve the resolution to approve the permanent closure of two portions of County Road 2794.

Judge Harbison related that she and County Attorney Price met with the city of Center and their maintenance department to discuss installing a manhole and addressing a sewer issue at the jail by installing a sewer screen.

A motion carried to approve the change order for the project Whitaker Plumbing is working on from $150,000 to $162,000.

The meeting adjourned at 10:08am.

Agenda items approved during the meeting include:

1. Pay weekly expenses.
2. Current payroll.
3. Purchase EDR equipment for use by DPS.
4. Resolution clarifying the closure of two portions of County Road 2794, containing 0.427 acres and 0.151 acres in Precinct 2 and adopting a 0.627 acre tract designated as County Road 2706, this Resolution corrects the Resolution adopted January 12. 2022.
5. Change Order No. 1 to amend the "Shelby County Jail Emergency Repairs Agreement" with Whitaker Plumbing.
6. Adjourn at 10:08am.