The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

AFTER months of discussion and review, the government will today enter into an agreement for a ShotSpotter system, the first of four technology-based crime fighting tools scheduled for a 2019 roll out.

The announcement was made outside of Cabinet yesterday by National Security Minister Marvin Dames, who also revealed the government was moving forward with ‘request for proposals’ (RFP) plans for its CCTV, drone and bodycam initiatives.

“So there is a signing (this afternoon) at 1.30 at Baha Mar, and we will be officially signing the contract for ShotSpotter,” Mr Dames told reporters. “We are excited (and) we are looking forward to it.”

According to its website, ShotSpotter technology is “an advanced system of sensors, algorithms and artificial intelligence (used) to detect, locate and alert police to gunfire.”

Late last year, Mr Dames said plans were in place to introduce law enforcement drones, bodycams, the ShotSpotter technology and expand CCTV before June of this year.

Addressing the CCTV initiative yesterday, Mr Dames said the government was moving to the “next phase” of its discussion on the matter, insisting that a RFP related to the project would be released at some point this week.

As for the government’s drone concept, Mr Dames revealed that Cabinet was presently reviewing “any number of requests” related to the initiative.

“We are in the process of looking at all the requests, and I think we have anywhere in excess of 20 plus requests and we are in the process of looking at those requests right now in order to shortlist those and make some sort of determination as to who would be awarded the contract in relations to the drones,” said Mr Dames.

“So there are a lot of things happening and we are well ahead of schedule here.”

Lastly, on the topic of bodycams, Mr Dames said the government had completed its RFP process, and that plans were in the works to have the results of that process discussed at the Cabinet level by next week.

Subsequent to that, Mr Dames said the Minnis administration will seek to move to a resolution on the matter over the next few months and later announce a contract.