In a request for information (RFI) released Sept. 27, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) wants to hear from companies capable of assisting it with a Los Angeles County defense and law enforcement solution. LASD is the largest sheriff’s department in the nation, serving about 5 million residents across more than 4,000 square miles with about 19,000 employees. Among the takeaways:
- LASD seeks information from companies that can deliver a proven, cloud-based, commercial off-the-shelf solution for its Joint Regional Intelligence Center (JRIC), serving its area of responsibility (AOR) that includes Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura counties. The solution would replace LASD’s existing Gotham software platform, a proprietary Palantir Technologies Inc. system. The department is interested in U.S.-based vendors that are willing to work in a secure, U.S.-based government cloud environment and deliver operations, maintenance and support around the clock. The RFI aims to learn as much as possible about existing and future technology trends for a potential solution that are capable of supporting “US fusion centers and/or law enforcement agencies,” according to the RFI. Information received in response to the RFI may inform preparation of a request for proposal, an invitation for bid or another type of solicitation.
- The JRIC is a collaborative partnership among federal, state, and local law enforcement and public safety agencies aimed at improving coordination, information sharing, regional preparedness, training, and investigative support and analysis. The solution will be used by more than 60 JRIC AOR agencies. The existing system is used to coordinate and analyze information. It has 16 production servers and 13 staging servers (backup servers) that the county owns and maintains, as well as a third-party maintenance provider. The solution has to be turnkey, with all necessary apps, underlying third-party software, data migration services, customized programming services, configuration, integration, operations, maintenance, support and training.
- Respondents must indicate how many years their firm has been in business; the size of their customer base, i.e., number and size of agencies and number of system users per agency; specify at least three agencies or “fusion centers” that have implemented their software or system in the last five years, including examples of data migration; and provide high-level system documentation that describes existing solution deployment for each customer, if applicable. Respondents should also describe solution functionality including its primary business functions including search; and dependencies and assumptions, technical and functional. Respondents should describe the solution’s technical architecture, including cloud and solution architecture and the cloud provider; end-user hardware and OS/software environment; security and auditing features; and disaster recovery plan. Companies must also provide a project implementation timeline and estimated cost.
- No term or estimated contract cost are indicated in the RFI. Responses to the RFI are due by 3 p.m. Oct. 31.
