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REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

United States Department of Homeland Security

Directorate of Science and Technology

Office of National Laboratories

National Urban Security Technology Laboratory

Pedestrian Weapons Screening Systems for Use at

Large Gatherings or Mass Transit Centers

RFI Number 70RSAT23RFI000029

THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. This RFI is issued solely for information and market research planning purposes. This RFI shall not be construed as an obligation on the part of the Government. This is NOT a Request for Quotations or Proposals (RFQ or RFP). No solicitation document exists, and the Government may or may not issue a formal solicitation as a result of the responses received to this RFI.

A. BACKGROUND

The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Directorate of Science and Technology (S&T) Office of National Laboratories (ONL) National Urban Security Technology Laboratory (NUSTL) is seeking information on commercially available weapons screening systems to meet the needs of public safety agencies to deter mass casualty attacks at large public gatherings or metropolitan transit locations. NUSTL is specifically seeking information on systems that are designed to screen people together with their possessions. Systems of interest for this RFI include those that:

1. Are capable of detecting large weapons carried covertly by pedestrians while they are moving;


2. Provide an alert or alarm to the operator of the system upon detection of a weapon;


3. Are capable of discriminating smaller threats and innocuous items so as not to alarm;


4. Allow people to be screened together with their carried bags, backpacks, briefcases, purses, and similar parcels;


5. Allow people to be screened without requiring divestment of innocuous metal objects, such as those carried in pockets or bags, prior to screening; and


6. Are designed for use at venues and events where large crowds gather and it is not practical to impede pedestrian traffic flow, such as metropolitan public transit centers, cultural institutions, and entertainment centers.

Please note that systems designed to for use at secure Government buildings, correctional facilities, airports, and similar venues with controlled access are outside of the scope of this RFI.

C. INFORMATION REQUESTED

This information is being sought for the DHS S&T’s System Assessment and Validation for Emergency Responders (SAVER) program, which provides information on commercially available equipment to assist response organizations in equipment selection and procurement. The SAVER program develops knowledge products and conducts objective, practitioner-relevant, operationally oriented assessments and validations on commercially available equipment and systems. Relevant information will be shared with nationally with federal, state, local, tribal and territorial response agencies. For further details on the SAVER program, visit the SAVER website at https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/saver.

SAVER provides information on equipment that falls within the categories listed in the DHS Authorized Equipment List (AEL). The AEL item number for the subject products is 15SC-00-PPSS, titled “Personnel/Package Screening Systems.” The target audience for this information is law enforcement, public safety and other emergency response personnel and their respective purchasing agents.

D. INSTRUCTIONS FOR RESPONDING TO THIS RFI

Respondents are required to complete a 72-question online or written (see Adobe *.pdf attachment in this System for Award Management (SAM.gov) posting) Product Summary Questionnaire for each product. The questionnaire associated with this RFI can be accessed here:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SAVER_Pedestrian_Weapons_Screening_Systems

The Product Summary Questionnaire includes questions seeking the following types of specific information:

1. Company name


2. Company address


3. Point of contact for technical questions about product specifications (name, title, e-mail, and phone number)


4. Business type (manufacturer or distributor)


5. Product name, type, description, and specifications


6. Detection technology and capabilities* and


7. Cost information (purchase price and General Services Administration [GSA] schedule information).

* NUSTL will determine if any detection specifications could be regarded as law enforcement sensitive and will not include those in publicly available reports. Other information received will be treated as public knowledge and may be used in SAVER program documentation. Manufacturers and vendors should not submit proprietary information in response to this RFI.

Responses to this RFI must be submitted to NUSTL no later than 5:00 PM Eastern Time (ET) on August 14, 2023. All technical comments, inquiries, and responses should be directed via e-mail to NUSTL Test Engineer Hasan Shahid at NUSTL@hq.dhs.gov and all non-technical questions should be directed to Contracting Officer Robert Marosz at Robert.Marosz@hq.dhs.gov and the Office of Procurement Operations Industry Liaison at opoindustryliaison@hq.dhs.gov. Any questions are due on or before 5:00 PM ET on July 24, 2023. Please include, as a reference, the RFI number 70RSAT23RFI000029 in the subject of any e-mail correspondence.

Any unsolicited proposals or quotes in response to this RFI will not be considered.

E. OTHER INFORMATION

The submitted information will be evaluated for inclusion in SAVER projects and reports. Determination as to an individual product’s suitability will be made by NUSTL based on the objectives of this request. Therefore, requests for feedback should not be made through the Federal Business Opportunities (https://sam.gov) posting agency. Respondents may be contacted following submission for more detailed product information. Information provided may be reformatted for publication in SAVER program documents. If a vendor does not respond to additional requests for information, information may be marked as “Not Available” or omitted from the SAVER documents.

The Government will not pay for any response or demonstration expenses. All costs incurred responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested party's expense. Failure to respond to this RFI will not preclude participation in any future solicitation. In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organizations’ capabilities.

The Government’s explicit intent through this RFI is to obtain general product information. That being said, the Government is not requesting and does not want to receive from respondents any proprietary data, trade secrets, business sensitive information, or information considered CONFIDENTIAL under 18 U.S.C. §1905. The Government’s constraint does not in any way relieve contractors from their responsibility to properly mark proprietary data when it is provided, nor does it alleviate any requirement for the Government to protect marked data. The Government is not obligated to protect unmarked data.

The information provided in this RFI is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. All submissions become the property of the Federal Government and will not be returned.

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