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

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

• Number of public safety bids: 1,052
• Top three states (by number of solicitations released): California (116), Texas (69) and Virginia (51)
• Keywords: camera/surveillance, fire alarm and radio

Frequency of terms

• Surveillance: 25 (seven state; 18 local)
• Radio: 11 (three state; 8 local)

The below graph provices information on the break-down of the types of entities purchasing justice and public safety technologies.

Trends

• States and localities awarded numerous projects in December after a slowdown over the past several months. The state of Nebraska awarded its study for its next generation 911 system project. Likewise, Cook County, Ill., awarded its video camera and recording system for the sheriff’s office.
• Many entities delayed the release of solicitations until early 2014, due primarily to the fact that issues arose during the approvals process with city and county boards and legal departments.
• Several computer-aided dispatch and records management system projects began moving forward, which is likely due to the fact that many of these systems were implemented in the mid-2000s and have reached the end of their useful lifecycle.

Notable projects

• The state of Texas released a request for offers for an enterprise case management solution for the Department of Public Safety.
• The New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision released an RFP for an offender commissary and trust-fund accounting system. Proposals are due on Thursday, September 18, 2014.
• A National Incident-Based Reporting System Repository request for information was released by the New Hampshire Department of Safety.
• North Carolina is currently working on a request for information that is expected to be released in early 2014 for a statewide automated fingerprint identification system. The RFI will gather information on products available in the marketplace along with budgetary estimates for the replacement that will be taken to the legislature to help secure funding.

Analyst’s Take

As is typical for December, there was a significant decrease in the number of solicitations released. With the holidays and many individuals taking vacation, it was likely difficult for project officers to coordinate and finalize solicitation specifications. Additionally, the solicitations that were released had longer-than-usual procurement timelines, with many proposals not due until February. This will allow both government and vendor project teams the necessary time to develop proposals and answer questions. Deltek anticipates that project timelines will return to a more normal schedule now that the holidays are over.

Vendors should keep an eye out for projects that have funding and have been worked on for some time. They should also work to keep in touch with localities that signed contracts several years ago, even if they were only implementation contracts. Vendors can gain or maintain a leg up on the competition by keeping on top of the likely rebid schedule of contracts they are interested in.

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