Deltek pulse: Justice/public safety and homeland security November review

The most common terms appearing in justice/public safety and homeland security solicitations during November were camera/surveillance, fire alarm and radio. The below word cloud provides a visual interpretation of key-term frequency.

• Number of public safety bids: 1,383
• Top three states (by number of solicitations released): California (130), Pennsylvania (118) and Texas (81)
• Keywords: camera/surveillance, fire alarm and radio

Frequency of terms

• Surveillance: 32 (seven state; 25 local)
• Radio: 15 (four state; 11 local)
• 911: 6 (three state; three local)

Number of opportunities by location 

• State: 573
• County: 387
• City: 305
• University: 22
• Other: 96

Trends

• Public safety software suites continued to trend in November with several localities releasing solicitations for these technology systems, including Forsyth County, Ga., and College Station, Texas
• A lack of funding continues to hamper projects across agencies and technological requirements. Unfortunately, many localities do not believe the situation will improve much in the next year
• Radio projects continue to move forward in many locations with solicitations planned for release in 2014. The majority of these projects will be P25-compliant

Notable projects

• The California Department of Technology released a draft RFP on November 1 for P25 Radio Infrastructure/Subscriber Equipment. A finalized RFP has since been released
• Iowa’s Department of Administrative Services released a solicitation for Statewide 700 MHz P25 LMR Network Infrastructure and Subscriber Units
• An RFP was released by the New Mexico Department of Information Technology for Enhanced 911 (E911), Next Generation 911 Emergency (NG911) System(s) and Related Products

Analyst’s Take

November saw a sharp rise in the number of solicitations released compared to October.  In total, 306 more justice and public safety solicitations were released. Despite the holiday, many of these solicitations were released toward the end of the month; however, many of them also have longer-than-usual timeframes for response, with many proposals not due until well into January. This trend occurred across all JPS procurements, particularly for radio-based technologies.

Many localities and states that were among the first wave to upgrade their radio systems when the narrowbanding requirement was released nearly 10 years ago are now in need of system and equipment upgrades. This has led to solicitations being released for system and equipment upgrades – a trend that is likely to continue in 2014.

November also saw an increase in solicitations for systems used by correctional facilities. This is indicative of a larger trend that shows corrections departments increasing their reliance on technology and moving forward with technology projects such as electronic monitoring, inmate phone systems and larger jail/case management systems.

Vendors should keep in mind that, in many cases, it is no longer sufficient to simply fulfill police departments’ technological needs. It is also essential to provide fully integrated solutions capable of tracking the full chain of custody from arrest through sentencing and incarceration. Vendors who are not in a position to provide fully-integrated solutions should begin building teaming relationships with other vendors to ensure their proposals are as strong as possible.