Cleveland City Council approves $18 million for safety forces equipment

Cleveland City Council approved an emergency request from Mayor Justin Bibb's administration for $18 million to upgrade critical equipment for the city's safety forces during its meeting Wednesday night.

"This is a lot of money, but there's an urgency to it," said Ward 17 Councilman Charlie Slife.

He said firefighters need what are known as "intrinsically-sealed" radios. They're designed to prevent the battery from exploding in a fire or other emergency situation involving combustion. However, Cleveland's radios are so outdated Motorola Solutions no longer makes replacement batteries or other parts.

"The situation that the City of Cleveland has found itself in is that our radios are old so we're having to struggle just to find the equipment to update them, but they are also aging out of this intrinsically safe qualification," he said. "At this point, we are having to triage or ration our radios to make sure that the people who are going into the most harm's way are getting them."

Slife said the money will be spent to upgrade radios for all members of the city's safety forces, including police, fire, and EMS.

"This allows us to have more up-to-date radios that, in many ways, are more analogous to a cell phone than like a traditional walkie-talkie," he said.

The money will also be spent to upgrade two critically important software systems: the Computer-Aided Dispatch System and Law Enforcement Records Management, which hold information about 911 calls and police reports.

Among the other expenditures, the money will also pay for software and management services for an Officer Intervention Program. The city has failed to track police officers' problem behavior, even though it has been required to since the City of Cleveland signed a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2015.

News 5 reached out to Mayor Bibb's administration about the emergency ordinance.

A public information officer shared the following response:

“The Cleveland Department of Public Safety continues to modernize operations by investing in technology and resources. On Wednesday, July 10, Cleveland City Council passed Ordinance 640-2023, allowing our administration to invest $18 million for the purchase of public safety radios, maintenance of records technology, and overall support of law enforcement initiatives in the City of Cleveland. These investments will allow more efficient communication, deployment, and management of resources and personnel in the Divisions of Police, Fire, EMS, and Animal Care and Control. We are thankful to Mayor Bibb and his RISE Initiative , City Council, and our Public Safety members, who work around the clock to keep Cleveland safe.”