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Law Enforcement Tech Company Omnigo Acquires QueTel

Acquisitions and partnerships seem to be the go-to strategy for major companies to stay competitive in the law-enforcement market, with so many competing to be a one-stop shop with interoperable tools.

In a move that could make it competitive in an environment of interconnected law-enforcement tools, the public safety management company Omnigo Software has acquired QueTel, which makes back-end software for handling digital and physical evidence.

Omnigo, which makes software for incident reporting, records management, 911 dispatch, visitor management, mobile communication and online training, announced the acquisition in a news release last month. As described in an email from a spokesperson, putting the two companies under one banner will package their products together, adding QueTel’s platform for tracking and organizing evidence in storage to Omnigo’s offerings.

The news release said Omnigo has 2,000 customers in 20 different countries. QueTel, founded in 1982, will remain based in Fairfax County, Va., and its founder and president, Jim Cleaveland, will stay involved as a consultant and owner in the combined organization.

“This strategic acquisition presents significant new opportunities for both Omnigo and QueTel to expand upon the portfolio of public safety and security tools delivered to customers,” said Michael Davis, CEO of Omnigo Software, in a statement. “QueTel has remained a constant innovator in evidence management and tracking solutions. Their offerings allow security and safety personnel to spend more time in the field, while ensuring evidence and materials are property maintained.”

The latest of many consolidations in the law enforcement market in recent years, Omnigo and QueTel’s deal follows a common strategy for technology companies to branch into new markets or improve their offerings. Tyler Technologies and Motorola Solutions have been particularly aggressive at this. A regulatory filing shows Motorola acquired at least nine companies from February 2016 to 2019, most recently including a body camera maker, a dispatch provider and a license plate-reading company. Tyler Technologies, possibly the largest domestic gov tech vendor with more than $1 billion in revenue last year, has acquired at least eight companies in the past two years according to Crunchbase, including Socrata, Sage Data Security, CaseloadPRO, MobileEyes, SceneDoc, MicroPact, MyCivic Apps and Courthouse Technologies.

Also incorporating the work of competitors instead of building new tools in-house, Mark43 has made a habit of forging partnerships in recent years with the likes of SPIDR Tech, Carbyne, RapidSOS, Polaris, the National Police Foundation and Forensic Logic.