AI Chatbot for Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) RFP

PURPOSE. This is a Request for Competitive Sealed Proposals (RFP) under Section 125.071 of the Ohio Revised Code (ORC) and Rule 123:5-1-08 of the Ohio Administrative Code (OAC). The Ohio Department of Public Safety (ODPS), Fiscal/Procurement Services on behalf of the Ohio Homeland Security is soliciting competitive sealed proposals (Proposals) for AI Chatbot for Public Safety - Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR)  and this RFP is the result of that request. If a suitable Proposal is made in response to this RFP, the State of Ohio (State), through ODPS, may enter into a contract (the Contract) to have the selected Offeror (the Contractor) perform all or part of the project (the Project or the Work). This RFP provides details on what is required to submit a Proposal for the Work, how ODPS will evaluate the Proposals, and what will be required of the Contractor in performing the Work.  This RFP also gives the estimated dates for the various events in the submission process, selection process, and performance of the Work. While these dates are subject to change, prospective Offerors must be prepared to meet them as they currently stand.
Once awarded, the term of the Contract will be from the award date through June 30th, 2025. ODPS also may solely renew this Contract at the discretion of ODPS for a period of one month; this unilateral renewal may be completed by ODPS at any time during the term of the Contract. Any other renewals will be by mutual agreement between the Contractor and ODPS for any number of times and for any period of time. The cumulative time of all mutual renewals may not exceed four (4) years, unless ODPS determines that additional renewal is necessary, and are subject to and contingent upon the discretionary decision of the Ohio General Assembly to appropriate funds for this Contract in each new biennium. ODPS may renew all or part of this Contract subject to the satisfactory performance of the Contractor and the needs of the Division.
Any failure to meet a deadline in the submission or evaluation phases and any objection to the dates for performance of the Project may result in ODPS refusing to consider the Proposal of the Offeror.

BACKGROUND.
The Ohio Homeland Security (OHS) is a Division of the Ohio Department of Public Safety (ODPS).  The main function of OHS is to analyze and share information, awareness, and vulnerabilities, and to develop strategies to prevent, prepare for, and protect against terrorism and other threats to public safety.

OVERVIEW.
OHS seeks to improve the process of reporting suspicious activities from Ohio citizens by partnering with a third-party provider on a project to develop a predictive-model AI chatbot. The AI chatbot, specifically designed for Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR), tips, and leads, empowers concerned citizens and provides law enforcement with concise, actionable, objective and pertinent threat or criminal information.

Through Ohio’s primary fusion center, the Statewide Terrorism Analysis and Crime Center (STACC), Ohio Homeland Security (OHS) participates in the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative (NSI). NSI is a joint collaborative effort by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement partners and provides law enforcement with another tool to help prevent terrorism and other related criminal activity by establishing a national capacity for gathering, documenting, processing, analyzing, and sharing SAR information. Information needed to submit a SAR include: who or what was seen, when and where it occurred and why it was suspicious activity.

OBJECTIVES.
ODPS has the following objectives that it wants this Work to fulfill, and it will be the Contractor’s obligation to ensure that the personnel the Contractor provides are qualified to perform their portions of the Work. OHS is requesting to purchase Artificial Intelligence, through chatbot tools, the latest technology to assist public engagement with a variety of public and private sector services. Public safety thrives on continuous dialogue and AI technology has the ability to leverage conversational chatbots to revolutionize suspicious activity reporting. The goal of this project is to provide an AI chatbot to guide the user through a conversation, asking pointed questions tailored to specific observations and allowing the powerful natural language processing behind the chatbot to adapt its inquiries based on a contributor’s answers, ensuring comprehensive details reach the STACC analysts.

It is anticipated a predictive AI chatbot would extract enough information for analysts to evaluate. On many occasions, the STACC will answer calls to report suspicious activity by individuals having a mental health crisis. Some of these calls extend for an hour or more, which tie up the analysts from doing other priority work. While we will continue to provide support through our tip line, our expectation is that the AI chatbot technology will alleviate many current issues by prompting tipsters to give more information based on previously answered questions and predict what other information might need to be known,
therefore guiding the tipster to provide important details in a comfortable manner utilizing the “text” or chat feature on a mobile phone.

Consistent with current SAR standard operating procedures, anonymity is always respected and would be maintained with the new chatbot functionality. Each report, even those submitted anonymously, carries a unique ID. This allows law enforcement or security personnel to "re-open" the conversation if they need further information to evaluate a potential threat, all while keeping citizen identities shielded. Utilizing this technology would alleviate the time, resources, and additional phone calls to get information needed to conduct a thorough investigation, providing law enforcement with actionable intelligence in a
significantly more timely and reliable manner, improving public safety for all Ohioans.

Request for Proposal (RFP) :  Offerors must review the attached "SRC0000025994 AI Chatbot for Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) RFP" document. Each Offeror must submit a Technical Proposal and a Cost Proposal as part of its Proposal package. Proposals must be submitted as two separate components (Technical Proposal and Cost Proposal) in separate electronic envelopes.
Technical Proposal : The Technical Proposal is to be submitted as a single searchable PDF document indexed as required in Attachment Two.
Cost Proposal : The Offeror must submit a separate cost section of its Proposal in the required format described in Attachment Two and as appears in OhioBuys Item grid.

Each section must be submitted in its own separate, electronic submission as indicated by the solicitation questionnaire. The submission with the Technical Proposal will be electronically sealed and contain a signed Technical Proposal, and the submission with the Cost Proposal also will be electronically sealed.

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