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TO: Mayor Richard C. Irvin
FROM: Commander Steve Stemment, APD
Assistant Chief Mark Matkovich, AFD
Jeff Anderson, Deputy CIO
DATE: September 13, 2021
SUBJECT:
Resolution to approve the purchase of licenses and equipment to increase interoperability of Public Safety radios form L3Harris, Melbourne, FL in the amount of $108,124.63 plus a $3,000 contingency.
PURPOSE:
This resolution is requesting updates to 38 radios and the APD's Mobile Command Post to provide P25 communications capability to communicate with and dispatch officers from other agencies most effectively and ratify the initial purchase required in April.
BACKGROUND:
Since 2010, the City has maintained an L3Harris Public Safety and Municipal Radio System that supports Public Safety and other departments. This L3Harris System previously provided communications via a proprietary standard known as OpenSky. The need for Public Safety staff to communicate via radio with other communities continues to grow ever larger. The recent upgrade to this system -- completed via approval in resolution R19-209 -- put the City in a much better position to provide interoperability with other agencies via the open P25 standard.
Since many of the surrounding areas utilize radio systems based upon the newer P25 radio communications standard, city Public Safety staff need to be able to communicate via P25 when leaving Aurora and allow first responders from other agencies to communicate via P25 when within the Aurora boundary.
An initial purchase of P25 radio licenses was completed in April, 2021 for a cost of $24,565. Due to the success of this initial deployment, APD is requesting these 38 additional radio licenses at a cost of $48,794.58.
The remaining costs of this resolution will provide hardware updates to the APD Mobile Command Post, which will allow this vehicle to provide increased dispatching and communications capabilities, including P25 communications, during large inter-agency involved incident...
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