II_1 Notice of Intent.pdf

Notice of Intent 5000178913

Axon Body-Worn Cameras

The Department of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) intends to make a Sole Source award to Axon Enterprises, Inc. for the purchase of Body-Worn Cameras.

Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) is seeking an Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract to purchase Body-Worn Cameras (BWC). In a memorandum dated June 7, 2021, the Department of Justice (DOJ) directed DOJ law enforcement components to develop body worn camera (BWC) policies requiring agents to wear and activate BWC recording equipment for purposes of recording their actions during: (1) a pre-planned attempt to serve an arrest warrant or other pre-planned arrest, including the apprehension of fugitives sought on state and local warrants; or (2) the execution of a search or seizure warrant or order.

On May 25, 2022, President Biden signed Executive Order 14074, Advancing Effective, Accountable Policing and Criminal Justice Practices to Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety. Section 13 of the Executive Order (EO) requires the heads of Federal Law Enforcement Agencies to ensure their respective agencies issued BWC policies within 90 days that were equivalent to, or exceed, the requirements of the BWC policy issued by the DOJ on June 7, 2021.

To comply with the above-mentioned EO, and consistent with the DOJ June 7, 2021, memorandum, IRS- CI developed an interim policy to establish guidance and procedures governing the use of BWCs by IRS- CI special agents and IRS-CI task force officers. IRS-CI has instituted a phased approach to deploying BWCs throughout the nation; the current phase, as relates to this Acquisition Plan, is a three Field Office, one year, pilot program in Fiscal Years 2023 and 2024. The purchase and use of Axon 3 BWCs, and Axon’s software and FedRAMP certified storage, is the best option for timely BWC deployment, secure digital evidence storage and compatibility with law enforcement partners and stakeholders. Compatibility with Axon Enterprise, Inc.’s BWCs and digital evidence storage in-use with other federal law enforcement partners, including the Executive Office of United States Attorney’s allows for simple file sharing with a complete and uninterrupted audit trail on the sharer and receiver’s ends. Axon’s audit trail is comprehensive and indicates any user who viewed, redacted, made excerpts from, shared or attempted to delete the BWC recordings. This information is critical for digital evidence in criminal trials and would require splicing data from two different systems if Axon BWCs were not used by IRS-CI.

IRS-CI Technology Operations provided the following justification for a sole-source BWC contract with Axon Enterprises, Inc.:

Body worn cameras are video recording devices carried or worn on the body of a law enforcement officer that provide digital recordings of operational activities. There are multiple vendors that provide body worn camera solutions with a multitude of capability, recording and storage options. The options include diverse abilities like recording 3 seconds prior to initiation by the wearer, livestream viewing, remote viewing\access, and secure storage in a cloud environment.

After reviewing multiple body worn camera solutions, only one vendor provides full capabilities in a FedRAMP approved environment (Axon). FedRAMP is the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program that provides “a cost-effective, risk-based approach for the adoption and use of cloud services by federal government.”

CI Technology Operations (Tech Ops) provides the information technology solutions and infrastructure to support CI’s mission to investigate “potential criminal violations of the Internal Revenue Code and related financial crimes in a manner that fosters confidence in the tax system and compliance with the law.” In its effort to accomplish this mission in a timely and efficient manner, the use of FedRAMP approved technologies enables agile development of solutions to meet CI’s evolving need to embrace the latest technology-based cloud solutions.

To support the evaluation of potential solutions to implement a body worn camera program, the use of Axon and its FedRAMP approved cloud-based storage solution represent the only option that reduces the need for IT infrastructure resources, enables the ability to easily share digital video data with external partners, and guarantees the security of digital video recordings. The size, volume and sharing of digital evidence captured from body worn camera solutions is anticipated to be significant.

The period of performance is for base year and four (4) option periods.

Base Period: 08/15/2024-08/14/2025 Option Period 1: 08/15/2025-08/14/2026 Option Period 2: 08/15/2026-08/14/2027 Option Period 3: 08/15/2026-08/14/2028 Option Period 4: 08/15/2028-08/14/2029

This is not a Request for Quote (RFQ), but a Notice of Intent. No RFQ will be issued. Interested parties may, however, request further information (no later than 4:00 PM eastern time July 18, 2024, by email to Contracting Specialist, Leatrice Person at leatrice.f.person@irs.gov .

JW R Terry Contracting Officer mailto:leatrice.f.person@irs.gov