Thomas Breen photo
Acting Chief Dominguez (right) at Thursday's presser.
The city has begun looking for a contractor to install 500 police surveillance cameras across New Haven as part of a federal-relief-funded effort to prevent and solve shootings and homicides.
Mayor Justin Elicker and Acting Police Chief Renee Dominguez made that announcement Thursday during a crime-update press conference on the third floor of police headquarters at 1 Union Ave.
Elicker said that the city has posted a Request for Proposals (RFP) to find a contractor who will help roll out an expansion of the police department’s video surveillance network.
The Board of Alders signed off on that expansion in December when local legislators overwhelmingly approved the Elicker Administration’s request to spend $12 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money on a host of public safety and technology initiatives. That allocation includes $3.8 million to buy and install 500 new surveillance cameras at crime hotspots around the city.
The RFP that the city recently posted is looking for a company “that would bring in the cameras,” Dominguez said on Thursday, “bring in everything we need, and also do the work of putting them up and connecting them so that we would be able to connect to our current system.”
The RFP itself, which can be read in full here, goes into greater detail as to what the city is looking for with this surveillance-camera-expansion project.
According to the city’s Public Purchasing Portal, the Elicker Administration first posted the camera-expansion RFP on Feb. 17. The last day for companies to apply for the bid is March 22.
“The City of New Haven (the “City”), is requesting Proposals from qualified firms to provide design, installation and configuration of up to 500 cameras to expand its camera network,” the document’s introduction reads. “This includes, but is not limited to, camera system design (i.e. camera and network equipment, installation, configuration), all associated camera system equipment (i.e. servers, storage, cameras, housings, software, network infrastructure, cabling, wiring, point to point and access points) and installation in coordination with the existing citywide camera system and network.”
It states the city’s camera system currently includes “over 250 cameras throughout [New Haven’s] 18 square miles providing coverage at key facilities and through neighborhood corridors, parks, business districts and hot spots.”
It also says that the city’s Camera Network Video Recorder (NVR) system is overseen by the city’s Department of Information Technology and the Chief Administrator’s Office, and is “guided by an interdepartmental working group comprised of its major users including the Department of Transportation, Traffic and Parking, the Police Department, the Chief Administrator’s Office, Information Technology and the City’s Controller.”
The city’s current camera infrastructure “includes an array of connections from dark fiber to microwave point to point links. The City operates all its cameras based off Milestones NVR. The system contains many pieces of infrastructure, multiple network sites and multiple servers in multiple locations.”
The services that the city is looking for a contractor to complete for this project, meanwhile, are focused on the design and implementation of a camera program expansion “for the Police Department to ensure that coverage is maximized to capture evidence related to crime and accidents.”
The RFP asks for a prospective contractor to include a “structured price plan” for four different scenarios. To quote directly from the RFP, those scenarios include:
• Replacing a camera with existing infrastructure to an Axis camera. Intersections are typically 4 way cameras and monitoring cameras are typically a PTZ camera.
• Adding a Camera to fixed Point to Point mesh network utilizing carrier grade equipment (cambium or Motorola is our preferred vendor)
• Replacing a tower Based Microwave link with a new private frequency that is registered with the FCC.
• Creating new infrastructure via Fiber at a cost per foot.
“The successful Respondent will not use access to the City’s Camera System or facilities for any unlawful purpose and shall comply with all valid rules and regulations applicable to the premises or the businesses conducted on the premises,” the RFP reads. “The vendors will not access or view the city’s NVR system without first getting direct written consent from the IT Department.”
The RFP states that the contractor shall have at five years of experience in “enterprise camera system services,” as well as five years working directly with a local government, among other qualifications.
The RFP does not state a specific dollar amount for the expected cost of the camera-expansion work. Rather, it says that the contractor “will be paid based upon a percentage completion of the total project design.”
What for? No one is arrested or prosecuted.