Rialto Approves $7.86 Million Police Headquarters Increase, $2.5 Million Camera Network

The Rialto City Council approved two major public safety investments Tuesday, June 9, authorizing an $7.86 million project estimate increase for the city’s new police headquarters project and approving nearly $2.5 million for the purchase, installation and maintenance of 113 public safety cameras throughout the city. 

The police headquarters amendment increases the project’s Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) by $7,861,852.43 and includes construction of a south parking lot expansion on a recently acquired parcel at 126 S. Willow Ave., along with additional contingency funding for ongoing construction costs. 

According to city documents, construction of the new headquarters encountered a series of unforeseen expenses after work began, including stormwater culvert improvements, utility relocations involving Southern California Edison, AT&T and Spectrum, main water line upgrades, radio and communications infrastructure modifications and site preparation associated with the future parking lot expansion. Those costs totaled roughly $3.28 million and exhausted the project’s original contingency funds. 

Police Chief Mark Kling said many of the additional costs stemmed from issues that emerged only after construction was underway. 

“We’ve come in at budget, and if I didn’t have to make up the differences of these unforeseen . . . charges or costs, we would be right where we need to be now,” Kling said.   

Kling said the city chose to move forward with improvements associated with the newly acquired parcel rather than defer the work to a later date, as labor and materials costs will likely increase.

“It’s cheaper right now to build it, even though it’s expensive,” he said, adding that “unfortunately, costs in construction are very expensive right now, and they’re not going to go down anytime soon.” 

Kling defended construction of the south parking lot, saying the project involves more than additional parking spaces and includes drainage, security and operational improvements.

Separately, the council also approved an agreement with Convergent Technologies to install 113 public safety cameras citywide for $1.44 million, along with a five-year maintenance agreement for roughly $1.03 million. 

Kling said the cameras will be installed at strategic intersections throughout Rialto and are intended to support the department’s real-time crime center and emergency response operations. He said the system will allow analysts to view incidents before officers arrive and help track vehicles, suspects and missing persons using AI-assisted cameras. 

“Our goal here is to become the premier agency in San Bernardino County,” Kling said. 

Addressing concerns about surveillance technology, Kling said the intersection cameras are separate from Flock camera systems. He emphasized that Rialto maintains control of its own data, which is stored on city-owned servers rather than by a third party vendor.  

While acknowledging that Rialto operates a limited number of Flock cameras, Kling said the city controls that data as well and is restricted by California law from sharing information in ways prohibited by state privacy protections.