Explanation
BACKGROUND: The Division of Police requests a contract with the third party vendor Carahsoft Technology Corp. to renew the Cellebrite software licenses for extracting digital evidence used to help solve crimes. Many crimes have some link to digital evidence. Due to this fact, most divisional units are using the services of the Police Digital Forensics Unit to obtain evidence from cellular and other electronic devices. The vendor Carahsoft Technology Corp. is a third party provider of the Cellebrite Inc. licensed software sold exclusively to law enforcement. With this software, the Digital Forensics Unit obtains the ability to unlock and decrypt more phones and extract more evidence to solve crimes. This evidence includes accessing: third party apps, stored passwords and tokens, chat conversations, location data, email attachments, system logs, deleted content, and much more.
BID INFORMATION: The Division of Police requests to waive the competitive bidding provisions of the Columbus City Codes to purchase software licenses due to the compatibility of the software with other Cellebrite equipment owned by the Division of Police.
This company is not debarred according to the Federal excluded parties listing or prohibited from being awarded a contract according to the Auditor of State unresolved findings for recovery certified search.
EMERGENCY DESIGNATION: Emergency legislation is requested due to the approaching expiration dates on the current subscription. A lapse in this subscription would halt critical investigations including homicides.
CONTRACT COMPLIANCE: CC-009115 Expires 9/26/2026
FISCAL IMPACT: The funding for the services/subscriptions has already been appropriated and authorized by Ordinance 0366-2026, passed on March 30, 2026. This expenditure is funded by the Law Enforcement Contraband Seizure Fund 2219.
Title
To authorize the Director of the Department of Public Safety to enter into a contract with Carahsoft Te...
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