DPS LAR Includes $535M in Technology-Related Requests

The Texas Department of Public Safety’s (DPS) fiscal year 2028-29 Legislative Appropriations Request (LAR) includes about $535 million in technology-related funding across baseline capital categories and a technology stabilization exceptional item.

That total includes about $153 million in baseline technology capital categories and about $382 million for Technology Stabilization and Operational Efficiency, the agency’s third-priority exceptional item.

The new request of $4.9 billion is about $100 million larger than DPS’ prior total agency request, but its overall exceptional-item package is $300 million smaller. However, its major technology-related exceptional-item request increased from about $294 million across two prior items to about $382 million in the new Technology Stabilization and Operational Efficiency item.

The request lines up with priorities DPS CIO Jessica Ballew described in a recent interview with Industry Insider — Texas. Ballew said the agency was focused this budget cycle on strengthening its security posture, replacing end-of-life systems and mission-critical applications, expanding disaster recovery capabilities and modernizing applications through scalable platforms, AI and automation.

The technology exceptional item would fund four sub-requests: about $243 million to maintain current operations, about $41 million for cybersecurity, about $91 million for school safety and public safety communications enhancements and about $7 million for data center services through the Department of Information Resources.

DPS says the technology stabilization request is needed to avoid declining system performance, aging infrastructure and elevated operational risk across statewide, mission-critical systems. The agency says funding from the 89th legislative session allowed it to address end-of-life systems, infrastructure modernization, security, mission-critical applications and enterprise data management, but additional investment is needed.

The maintain-current-operations sub-request would support network stabilization, structured cabling, wireless expansion, bandwidth increases, redundant circuits, enterprise monitoring tools, consolidated network equipment and life cycle replacement of aging core infrastructure. It would also support campus mapping, statewide data pipelines, enterprise monitoring that uses AI and machine learning for anomaly detection, replacement of aging data center infrastructure, expanded Wi-Fi across 300 sites, Software-Defined Wide Area Network and managed mobility services.

The cybersecurity sub-request totals about $41 million and includes 18 full-time equivalent positions. DPS says the agency is a high-value target because it safeguards criminal histories, gang intelligence, biometric data and driver records for about 28 million Texans.

The cybersecurity funding would support endpoint detection and response; security information and event management; vulnerability scanning; security orchestration, automation and response; a centralized threat-intelligence platform; data quality tools; identity and access management modernization; higher-tier security licensing; secure file transfer; and additional cybersecurity personnel.

The school safety and public safety communications sub-request totals about $91 million and includes three full-time equivalent positions. DPS says statewide emergency operations depend on interoperable radio communications, reliable data access and a shared common operating picture.

That funding would support expansion of Team Awareness Kit, enhancements to Texas Interoperability Radio Interconnect Systems, a deployable Statewide Interoperability Coordinator emergency radio cache, improvements to the Texas Maintenance Assessment Program, a statewide real-time collaboration and messaging platform, school mapping work, statewide data pipelines and portable cellular and satellite communications kits.

The data center services sub-request totals about $7 million across the biennium. DPS says the funding would support DIR data center and shared technology services, including cloud hosting, storage, backup services, Microsoft Office 365, security operations and application development and maintenance.

The baseline side of the request includes about $132 million for acquisition of information resource technologies, about $13 million for cybersecurity, about $6 million for data center and shared technology services and about $1 million for the Centralized Accounting and Payroll/Personnel System.

The largest baseline category includes funding for technology equipment, crime records technology projects, driver's license technology upgrades, IT modernization and maintenance, advanced analytics software, electronic content management, case management, livestreaming, disaster information technology, body cameras and storage, and other items.