Deltek Pulse: Justice/public safety and homeland security month in review, May 2014

Published: June 06, 2014

The most common terms appearing in justice/public safety and homeland security solicitations during May were camera, radio, and fire alarm. The below maps provide information on where solicitations were released during the month.

Number of public safety bids: 3,192
Top three states (by number of solicitations released): Texas (430), California (415) and Pennsylvania (211)
Keywords:camera, radio, and fire alarm

Frequency of terms

Fire alarm: 40 (12 state; 28 local)
Camera: 27 (9 state; 18 local)
Radio: 17 (4 state; 13 local)
CCTV: 11 (5 state; 6 local)

Trends

While there were more contracts awarded in May versus April, a significant number of projects were canceled as well.
A couple entities chose not to pursue a formal procurement process, but rather proceed with state contracts, such as Pennsylvania’s records management system (RMS) project and Connecticut Colleges’ emergency notification system (ENS).
Several solicitations related to police technology were released in May, including the Colorado Department of Public Safety’s mobile data terminal installation project and San Francisco’s GPS/AVL tracking system (JCMS) replacement or upgrade project.

Notable Projects

The Texas Commission on State Emergency Communications (CSEC) released a draft of its FY15-19 Agency Strategic Plan, which mentions the ESInet for the state and 911 call handling.
Lackawanna County, Penn., awarded Intrado a $1.14 million contract to upgrade its CPE equipment, making NG911 capable.
The Maine Department of Corrections awarded its correctional control room consolidation and upgrades project to Schneider Electric for $3,297,135.

Analyst’s Take

The month of May saw the release of more than 2,000 solicitations compared to April, and a majority of projects were released at the state level. As summer approaches and entities begin releasing budget documents, vendors will have a clearer picture of which projects were awarded funding and will be moving forward in the upcoming fiscal year.

Senior Analyst Evan Halperin published a blog about FirstNet releasing consultation packages to every state and tribal government this past month. States will have to determine whether they will opt in to the Radio Access Network (RAN) or opt out and seek FCC approval to build their own. State meetings and conference calls with FirstNet will take place July 2014 through November 2014. Vendors should begin preparing for states that may decide to opt out and release their own solicitations for a broadband network. This week, Deltek released a report on the Public Safety Radio Market, featuring trends on the market as well as analysis on FirstNet. You can view the report here.

GovWin IQ subscribers can read further about these projects in the provided links. Non-subscribers can gain access with a GovWin IQ free trial