From
Fred Bates, Jr.
Title
Purchase audio/video equipment for the Real Time Crime Center from Ford Audio Video Systems through a national inter-local agreement with BuyBoard in the amount of $58,266.19
Presenter
Steve Dye, Chief of Police, and Ryan Simpson, Senior Financial Analyst
Recommended Action
Approve
Analysis
The Grand Prairie Police Department serves a City that is situated within an exponentially growing Dallas - Fort Worth region. The combination of urban, suburban, commercial, and industrial growth in this region necessitates a vibrant, progressive, and technologically advanced police department that is able to provide credible intelligence to officers and detectives concurrent to criminal activity. The Police Department continues to seek ways to utilize current technology to enhance its efficiency in providing a safe and secure environment for its citizens and visitors.
The Police Department, in an effort to maintain its leading edge in progressive technological crime fighting techniques, is creating a Real Time Crime Center for monitoring surveillance video feeds and other information streams. Real Time Crime Centers are utilized by law enforcement agencies to effectively use centralized technology to give patrol officers and detectives instant information to help identify crime patterns, investigate and efficiently prosecute criminal elements. The Real Time Crime Center is being created utilizing existing space at the Public Safety Building (PSB) where the requested audio/video equipment, including projectors and a large interactive video screen, will be housed.
Chapter 271.102 of the Local Government Code authorizes local governments to participate in a cooperative purchasing program with another local government or local cooperative organization. In lieu of competitive bidding, items and services may be purchased through such agreements as the agreements have already been bid by the sponsoring entity or agency. The City of Grand Prairie has master inter-local cooperative agreements with various entities including BuyBoard.
The BuyBoard is able to save money by pooling the impressive purchasing power of their members, which include hundreds of school districts, municipalities, counties, other local governments, and nonprofits across Texas. They use the power of numbers as leverage to get better prices with the same vendors we use now.
The audio/video equipment will be purchased directly from Ford AV through their BuyBoard contract #482-15.
The Public Safety, Health and Environmental Committee reviewed this item on November 6, 2017 and recommended that it be forwarded to the City Council for approval.
Financial Consideration
Funding for the purchase of the A/V equipment in the amount of $58,266.19 is available in the FY 2017/2018 Crime Tax Fund budget, 286110-68020 (Misc Improvements).