Justice, public safety and homeland security August review

Deltek Analyst Kristin Howe reports.

Office work tends to slow to a crawl in August with employees taking advantage of school breaks and warm weather to get out of the office. Government is no different. August proved to be a slow month for the justice and public safety market. That said, several trends emerged throughout the month, including an increase in the number of local governments focusing on purchasing new or upgraded radio systems. Numerous counties in Pennsylvania, including Clinton, Montgomery and Schullykill, are moving closer to releasing solicitations while determining what sort of system to implement. Chester County, Pa. released a solicitation for a 700/800MHz public safety radio system. Two counties in Georgia also released solicitations for new radio systems. Gordon County is calling for an 800MHz, APCO P25 system. Rockdale County, on the other hand, has not specified what type of system it prefers; county officials have stated that either a 700 or 800 MHz system is acceptable so long as it meets the FCC narrowbanding requirements.

The second trend that emerged in August was the move toward kiosk-based services for motor vehicle departments and inmate registration. New Mexico released a request for information (RFI) for a motor vehicle division kiosk project similar to the RFI released in 2010 by the Connecticut Department of Transportation. Nevada awarded two kiosk projects in August – one for DMV registration, which was awarded to Intellectual Technology Inc. for $27,591,949. The second was for inmate kiosks and was awarded to Keefe Group and JPay Inc. for a total of $26.8 million. It is too early to tell whether kiosks will be an emerging trend; however, it is likely that they will become an attractive option as states and counties are forced to cut their budgets (including personnel). While the initial expenditure is often substantial, they could save millions in salary expenditures, not to mention time for those waiting at the DMV.

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