Lawmakers ponder $54M no-bid contract for police cameras, communications

Louisiana lawmakers will consider a $54 million, no-bid contract Thursday for disaster communications services, body-worn and dashboard cameras and other technology state law enforcement agencies use. 

Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration recommended last month that the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget endorse an exclusive 10-year deal with Motorola to provide all that equipment.

Evelina Broussard, Landry’s chief information officer, told lawmakers the Motorola contract would be worth about $54 million at a July 23 committee meeting. 

Broussard and other Landry administration officials said the contract would save the state between $40 million and $70 million by locking in discounts on Motorola technology for a decade.

Under the proposal, Motorola’s integrated system would be used by the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, Louisiana State Police, State Fire Marshal, Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Department of Corrections, Department of Probation and Parole, and the Office of Juvenile Justice.

The contract would allow the state to negotiate discounts on Motorola equipment for local law enforcement to purchase, Broussard said. 

“You’re striking while the iron’s hot,” she said.

In July, legislators alluded to other vendors potentially being upset that Motorola was being given an exclusive deal. Several warned the Landry administration not to rush the contract through the process and questioned why it hadn’t been competitively bid.

“There might be some other vendors who feel they can do that,” Sen. Gerald Boudreaux, D-Lafayette, said after hearing about the advantages of an all-Motorola system.

“It shines a bad light that we’re rushing through something that is so important,” he added. 

Burns said a fully integrated system, such as the one Motorola can provide, should result in fewer circumstances of missing body camera footage. In some cases, the Motorola body cameras would be able to turn themselves on based on activity picked up by Motorola radios or because they can sense other officers’ body cameras in the immediate area have been activated.

“It provides a very robust picture of what’s going on at that time and provides a lot of video evidence,” Burns said. 

While the state didn’t solicit bids for the contract through a competitive process, Burns said State Police reviewed other vendors’ products over a nine-month period before determining it wanted to work with Motorola.