~$9,000 Per Camera, Per Year Maintenance???

Bermuda's new 150-camera system will cost $1.3 million per year for maintenance.

Bermuda’s Public Safety Minister was so impressed with the island’s four year old 86-camera system that it decided to overhaul it and buy a new one. They put out an RFP and announced the contract award to BAS-Serco last fall. The new system has 150 cameras (with facial recognition and LPR capability and will be integrated with the camera systems of three nearby towns. The service and maintenance agreement is $110,000/month, police announced last week. The contract is for five years.

Public safety officials say they got a number of good packages in response to the RFP, but the BAS-Serco plan was the best one as evaluated by the Bermuda Police (a reporter at a press conference announcing the contrast last Fall speculated that the contract was approved because the project was put together by a former police commissioner).

“It focuses on getting the best technology around, to do the best job for the best price available,” the Public Safety Minister said in response.

Why is this system so expensive? Does anyone have any idea?