The Sandy Springs Police Department received approval from the city council to fund a $776,771 real-time crime center in its future headquarters.
The center will serve as a centralized hub for real-time monitoring, data analysis, and rapid response to criminal activities, Major Dan Nable said in his department’s proposal during the city council’s May 21 meeting.
Nable said they would use $610,000 from the Sandy Springs Police Department’s seizure/forfeiture/escrow account to fund most of the project. The remaining $166,771 would come from unused funds in the Police Capital Lease fund, which was created to lease police radios.
The city council approved a contract with Utilicom Supply Associates of Norcross, a state-preferred vendor, for the purchase of the hardware and software including a large video wall. The city has contracted with Utilicom on its emergency operations center and traffic management centers.
Nable said the real-time crime center would provide analysts with the resources needed to identify criminal suspects while the crime happens, or soon after, increasing the likelihood of apprehension. The long-term vision is to staff it full time.
Councilmember Tibby DeJulio asked about possible problems since the renovation of the office building at 620 Morgan Falls Road into the police headquarters/municipal court has already begun.
Nable said that the blocking and wiring necessary to install the hardware for the real-time crime center were in place. If the project hadn’t been approved, a future installation would not need retrofitting.
Sandy Springs keeps its call center operator
Sandy Springs will keep Faneuil under contract for its call center services at a not-to-exceed cost of $637,020 for FY 2025.
Interim Communications Director Dan Coffer told the city council on Tuesday that the contract includes annual increases of 5 percent for the first two years and 4 percent for the next two years of the contract. It requires annual approval.
Faneuil’s five-year cost of $3.5 million was higher than 22nd Century Technologies bid of $2.4 million. However, Coffer said 22nd Century’s bid fell short for several reasons such as failure to include start-up costs in its bid. The company also did not satisfactorily answer staffing questions.
Councilmember Andy Bauman said that based on the staff’s evaluation, the low bidder did not seem to meet bid requirements.
“The numbers don’t add up. So we don’t really have a choice here. This is the right way to go,” he said.