Using bond issue money, Douglas County Board OKs paying Motorola $11 million for 911 radio equipment, upgrades | Omaha Metro

Douglas County will pay Motorola $11.1 million for 911 radio equipment and upgrades.

The equipment includes new base radio stations for the county’s seven 911 towers, plus new radios for the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, rural law enforcement agencies, rural fire departments, Douglas County Corrections officers and hospitals. It will replace equipment that county and Motorola officials have said is becoming obsolete.

The agreement also includes $438,000 for encryption of Omaha police officers’ radios and other upgrades. It’s the same encryption that will be on the county’s new radios. The City of Omaha earlier had bought new police radios and encryption, and Police Chief Todd Schmaderer had told the County Board that police didn’t want the kind of encryption the county planned to buy.

But since it was in the Motorola contract anyway and it comes with other enhancements â€" such as GPS location of officers by their handheld radios â€" the Police Department is glad to have it, Schmaderer said Tuesday.

“It’s not that we didn’t need or want it, but we didn’t think it was our top priority,” he said of the encryption. “But since it’s been included in this package, we’re happy to have it.”

The vote was 6-0. Board Member Chris Rodgers was absent; he is out of town at a juvenile justice conference.

County Board Member Mike Boyle said during the meeting that the agreement is what the county told the public it would do with bond issue proceeds.

“We are following through with what we proposed,” Boyle said.

County and city officials apparently have resolved their differences over how bond issue money designated for the Omaha Police Department should be spent.

The bond issue included $800,000 for the Omaha Police Department, including money for a forward-looking infrared camera, or FLIR, for a police helicopter. Schmaderer had told the board in August that his department could use one or more FLIR systems, and that they cost about $400,000.

County Board Chair Mary Ann Borgeson said Tuesday that the county will purchase a FLIR for Omaha police with the bond issue proceeds.

“It’s what we said to the voters that we would do,” Borgeson said. “So we’re going to be true to our word.”

County and city officials had met last week to discuss what the Police Department most wanted the county to fund with the bond issue. They discussed other options, but in the end, the county went with the radio upgrades that were already in the Motorola contract, and the helicopter camera that the county had told voters the bond issue would buy.

Schmaderer thanked the County Board today for including Police Department needs in the bond issue.

“We appreciate the county board realizing that we’ve got some public safety issues, and we appreciate them working with us on it,” he said.

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