# Utility Associates In-vehicle cellular connectivity / mobile-modem vendor. **Utility Associates, Inc.** (250 East Ponce De Leon Avenue, Suite 700, Decatur GA 30030). Sells the **Rocket Mobile Modem** hardware with the **POLARIS** SaaS management platform — together providing CJIS-compliant in-vehicle internet connectivity for police patrol vehicles, supporting CAD, GPS, plate-lookup, and video offload from BWCs and MVRs back to the city network. ## Corporate identity | Fact | Value | Source | |---|---|---| | Legal name | Utility Associates, Inc. | (Tier-1 corpus, [[CLR-2026-778]], Utility Renewal memo + Resolution 16,787) | | Address | 250 East Ponce De Leon Avenue, Suite 700, Decatur GA 30030 | (Tier-1 corpus, Utility Quote 135031) | | Phone | (800) 597-4707 | (Tier-1 corpus, same) | ## Product line documented in the LRPD corpus | Product | Description | Coverage | |---|---|---| | **Rocket Mobile Modem** | In-vehicle 4G/5G cellular modem hardware | 225 LRPD patrol vehicles | | **POLARIS SaaS** | Remote configuration and management platform for the Rocket modems | (renewed per vehicle) | | **Rocket Remote Configuration Management (RCM)** | Software-controlled modem configuration + hardware warranty + limited software support | 1-year coverage | | Document | Date | Amount | Vehicle | |---|---|---|---| | **Resolution 16,787** | 2025-08-19 | **$79,000.00** | Texas DIR DIR-CPO-4799 cooperative-purchasing contract | | **Utility Renewal Memo** | 2025-07-10 | (recommends $79,000) | RTCC funding allocation 108529-S52C458 | | **Utility Quote 135031** | 2025-01-23 (expires 8/31/2025) | $470,490 list less $391,490 discount = **$79,000** | Per the quote | ## Procurement vehicle Utility Associates runs on the **Texas DIR (Department of Information Resources) cooperative purchasing agreement DIR-CPO-4799**. The City of Little Rock rides Texas's competitively bid contract. ## Funding The renewal is funded from **RTCC funding allocation 108529-S52C458** per [[Courtney Bewley]]'s July 2025 memo. This makes Utility Associates one of several LRPD vendors funded from RTCC-specific accounts (alongside [[i2 Group]] and parts of [[Fusus]]). The Utility memo notes: > "These systems are critical for maintaining internet connectivity in the field, which enables access to the city network, CAD, and GPS functions. There are still 225 vehicles relying on this technology. Without renewal, these vehicles will lose essential operational capabilities that directly impact officer effectiveness and public safety." (Tier-1 corpus, [[CLR-2026-778]], Utility Renewal memo from Lt. Courtney Bewley to Major Jonathan Prater, 2025-07-10) ## Verbatim citations > "A Resolution to authorize the City Manager to enter into a contract with Utility Associates, Inc., in an amount not to exceed Seventy-Nine Thousand Dollars ($79,000.00), plus applicable taxes and fees, to renew Polaris software subscription services and hardware warranty for Rocket mobile modems outfitted in 225 Little Rock Police Department patrol vehicles" (Tier-1 corpus, Resolution 16,787 §1) > "Vendor selection with Utility Associates, Inc., was made through the utilization of a cooperative purchase agreement with Texas Department of Information Resources under Contract No. DIR-CPO-4799, pursuant to Little Rock, Ark. Resolution No. 16,603 (February 18, 2025) as amended" (Tier-1 corpus, same, WHEREAS clause) > "Funds for this purchase are available in Account No. 108529-63390-S52C458." (Tier-1 corpus, same, §2) > "Subtotal $470,490.00 / Discount ($391,490.00) / Subtotal $79,000.00" (Tier-1 corpus, Utility Quote 135031, p. 4) The 83% discount (an effective price reduction from $470,490 list to $79,000 contract) is one of the most aggressive cooperative-purchasing-vehicle discounts documented in the corpus. The list-vs-contract gap quantifies how much of the apparent product cost is rebated when LRPD piggybacks Texas's competitively-bid pricing. ## Roles in this corpus - **The in-vehicle connectivity vendor providing internet, CAD, GPS, and video-offload connectivity** for LRPD's 225-patrol-vehicle fleet. - **A cooperative-purchasing-vehicle entry on Texas DIR DIR-CPO-4799** — the corpus's clearest example of Texas-state procurement piggybacking. - **RTCC-funded** (RTCC funding allocation 108529-S52C458). ## People - [[Courtney Bewley]] — Lt., Technology & Equipment Unit; authored the 2025-07-10 renewal memo. - [[Jonathan Prater]] — Major, Headquarters Division Commander; received the renewal memo. - [[Latreasa Mullins-Sanders]] — LRPD Administrative Services Finance Manager; routed the LRPD-side processing. - **Dahlia Blake** — Utility Associates sales rep on Quote 135031. (Proportionate.) ## Pulaski County (PCSO) — RFP-23-003 second-place bidder (2023) The [[_overview|`#26-365`]] production from Pulaski County Government documents Utility Associates as a **second Arkansas LE-agency touch**, this time as a **competing bidder** rather than a contracted vendor. Utility submitted a bid in response to [[Pulaski County RFP-23-003 Solicitation and Flock Safety Bid|Pulaski County RFP-23-003]] for the lease of 6 ALPR cameras and **placed second with a composite score of 45.00** (vs. Flock's 100, John Wright Associates' 35, Insight LPR's 20). Per the Quote Bid Tabulation, Utility's Purchase Option pricing was **$22,800** — the **lowest of the four bidders** ($28,800 Flock, $53,364 John Wright, $74,480 Insight LPR) — but Utility's relocation/portable-unit pricing of **$153,000** was disproportionately high, distorting the cumulative cost comparison. The Pulaski County bid reflects that Utility's product positioning includes some form of ALPR-capable system (perhaps an LPR-integration option for its Rocket modem platform, or a stand-alone vehicle-mounted LPR product). The substantive content of Utility's RFP-23-003 bid response is redacted in the FOIA production; whether it was Rocket-based, a stand-alone product, or a partnership offering is unknown. The cross-jurisdiction footprint — selling Rocket modems to LRPD on cooperative purchasing while losing an ALPR procurement at Pulaski County on competitive RFP — illustrates the **different procurement-track economics**: Utility's relationship with LRPD is multi-year and structurally embedded via the Texas DIR contract; the failed Pulaski County bid was one-off competitive procurement that resulted in vendor selection by a 5-evaluator panel scoring rubric. ## Notes - The Rocket modems are "Rocket V1" legacy hardware on some vehicles; the newer Rocket high-speed data communications system is on others. Both run POLARIS SaaS. The corpus quote details which vehicles run which generation. - The reference to Res. 16,603 (Feb 18, 2025) as the prior Sourcewell/cooperative-purchasing authorization is shared with the Motorola Watchguard M500 procurement. Resolution 16,603 itself is not in this production. - See [[Asset-Forfeiture Funding for Surveillance Procurement]] for the funding-source thread; Utility runs on RTCC funding rather than asset-forfeiture funding at LRPD. - The Pulaski County RFP-23-003 bid is the corpus's only documented instance of Utility Associates competing head-to-head against Flock in an Arkansas LE-agency procurement. Utility lost on Technical Capabilities (averaging mid-range vs. Flock's perfect 35/35) and on Cost-of-Service evaluation (perfect 100 for Flock vs. partial credit for Utility).