Can Google really protect and serve Los Angeles?

Byline: Paul M. Weber, Local View

WITH the upcoming City Council vote on the proposed replacement of Los Angeles' e-mail and records retention software with Google services, the public needs to know that the move may pose significant risks to city employees and Angelenos.

The theoretical budget benefits from Google applications are enticing. But the truth, according to a recent city administrative officer report, is that the proposed cost savings are not as attractive as they first appear. And the question of public safety and security must be equally weighed in making the decision to switch.

You'll hear a lot about cost savings from Google Apps "Software as a Service" (SaaS) solutions. However, the reality is that for the majority of government organizations with several thousand employees - such as the city of Los Angeles - it ends up being more expensive in the long run.

Consider the numbers:

The Google list price is $50 per user, per year, which is actually more than the current price.

The cost to reconfigure and move data from the existing systems may cost between $125-$150 per work station.

Moving to a new system with a limited feature set, like Google Apps, will require extensive retraining for city employees, giving the city a fraction of the functionality available from other office suites at a significantly higher price.

Google isn't "free," and on top of the migration and maintenance costs, the risks associated with potential security breaches or attacks can quickly turn any savings into very high costs.

Moving to Google Apps may limit public institutions' ability to shield sensitive information from the public domain - information that ultimately keeps the residents of Los Angeles safe. As police officers, we must remember that our responsibility is as much about on-the-street action as it is about protecting residents from the increasing digital threats that are now permeating all areas of criminal activity.

As some high-profile Los Angeles Police Department data breaches have recently shown, we need to be even more sensitive to the fact that any information that lives on the Web and in "the clouds" can pose a potential security threat.

Google is not a security company, and without proper security measures the migration of the Police Department's internal documents, e-mail and other data to Google's Web software system opens the door for it to be accessed and manipulated by malicious attackers. This includes information regarding residents as well as internal LAPD operations, policies and procedures. If the department's internal records or a private resident's personal information housed in our system are compromised, it could do irreparable harm to the image of our city and could ultimately hurt our ability to police Los Angeles.

There's no question that the simplicity of searching the Web via Google has transformed the way we find information on a daily basis. This ease of use is one of the reasons Los Angeles is even considering the use of Google Apps. However, there are other issues to consider, such as reliability.

Chances are when you go to Google to search for the latest sports scores or daily news, a short site outage is not a major concern. However, when 100 percent of the city's work force and residents are relying on Google's services 24/7 to get business done, the game changes. If Google is down, so is the city of Los Angeles. Communications are suspended and the ability of employees to do their job is halted. No matter how short, an outage like this can damage not only the productivity of city agencies but the confidence the community has in law enforcement and other civic resources. Our city and our state cannot afford that now.

With Web-based services there are also regulatory and compliance issues that must be considered. Google may store data outside the U.S., requiring regulatory approval for its use in some jurisdictions. In extreme cases, data stored outside of the U.S. can be subject to local laws, which may have fewer rights or protections than data stored within the U.S. With Google's data retention system, the city of Los Angeles must consider whether it will be able to meet both its state and federal compliance demands. This may not only create an additional management burden for the city, it may also add further costs in order to ensure that it meets basic regulatory and compliance requirements.

Whatever decision the city of Los Angeles makes on this issue, one thing is certain - the move will be analyzed and studied by other cities across the United States. Let's hope that our actions will be modeled for our achievements in serving the public and keeping our city safe, not for the shortsightedness of a major technology misstep in order to save a few bucks.