For the past 12 years, the Northern California High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (NCHIDTA) program has provided a stable source of federal funding and collaborative regional leadership to combat organized drug trafficking and related crime. In 2004, the Northern California Regional Terrorism Threat Assessment Center (NCRTTAC) was established under NCHIDTA management to make it possible for public safety agencies to identify and assess terrorist threats in the Bay Area. NCRTTAC was co-located with NCHIDTA to form an information “Fusion Center” for Northern California. In 2009, the Fusion Center began doing business as the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center (NCRIC). The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the State of California have designated the NCRIC as the regional Fusion Center for the Bay Area. The NCRIC is funded by federal State Homeland Security Program funds, for which the California Emergency Management Agency (Cal EMA) serves as the grantee as well as federal Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) funds, for which the City and County of San Francisco serves as the regional administrator.
Because NCHIDTA and NCRTTAC are funding streams and not legal entities, the Sheriff serves as the lead agency for both NCHIDTA and NCRTTAC.
On June 16, 2009, your Board entered into an Agreement (Resolution No. 070216) with the City and County of San Francisco for the distribution of Fiscal Year 2008 Bay Area UASI grant funds in the amount of $2,253,456.
On May 25, 2010, your Board executed the First Amendment to the Fiscal Year 2008 Bay Area UASI grant award (Resolution No. 070796) to increase the distribution of grant funds by $20,301 from $2,253,456 to $2,273,757.
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On May 14, 2009, Cal EMA approved the Bay Area UASI’s sole source request for the purchase of Digital Sandbox Risk Analysis Center (RAC). The RAC is a suite of analytic software and services that enable public safety risk managers to assess, prioritize, and manage their risks. The RAC was specifically designed to meet the needs of federal, state and local risk managers to develop and deploy more effective risk management strategies. Consisting of powerful risk analysis software application – designed for the public safety risk management audience, and integrated risk analysis services, the RAC helps its users understand, monitor, prioritize and act on their jurisdictional risks. A few of Digital Sandbox’s customers include the federal Department of Homeland Security as well as other State and Urban Area Homeland Security organizations around the country. In addition, Digital Sandbox has proprietary and protected algorithms used in the process and holds three (3) US patents for methods and tools used in Risk Management.
For the past year, the NCRIC, in collaboration with the Bay Area UASI and the region’s county and city agencies, has populated the Digital Sandbox RAC software suite with thousands of data points related to the region’s risk. In order to use and refine the data collected through thousands of hours of work by fusion center, county and city employees, the NCRIC is requesting that the RFP process be waived in order to purchase the Fusion Center Application Suite from Digital Sandbox. No other vendor would be able to replicate the current RAC system without violating U.S. Patent Law; therefore Digital Sandbox is being considered a sole source provider.
County Counsel has reviewed and approved the Resolution as to form.
Approval of the Resolution contributes to the Shared Vision 2025 outcome of a Collaborative Community as NCRIC is a collaborative regional public safety undertaking which leads to safer communities by improving cooperation and information sharing between agencies.
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