The Florence Police Department will be getting eight new public safety mobile radios.
The Florence Town Council approved the purchase at its Feb. 5 meeting. The motion was part of the council’s consent agenda. All items on the consent agenda are approved or rejected with one vote. Individual council members can request that an item be pulled from the consent agenda for a separate discussion and vote.
The purchase of the radios is not to exceed $72,502.28. The Florence Police Department was awarded a $68,000 grant from the Arizona Department of Homeland Security for the Florence Public Safety Interoperable Communications Project.
Grant funds will be used to purchase eight P25 compliant APX 8500 all-band mobile radios for the department. The new radios will replace existing radios that have limited functionality. The town will use a state contract to purchase the radios from Motorola Solutions.
The town will be reimbursed $68,000 from the Arizona Department of Homeland Security. The remaining $4,502 not covered by the grant will come from the general government capital projects fund for police mobile radios, according to a staff report.
In August, Florence also was awarded a grant from the state worth more than $1.2 million to pay for upgrades to the town’s public safety communications equipment.
The grant was announced on Aug. 7 during a border security event and discussion hosted by Gov. Katie Hobbs in Casa Grande. The grant comes from the Arizona Department of Emergency & Military Affairs’ Border Technology Fund, a press release stated.
“It is crucial that our first responders can communicate effectively while fighting crime associated with our border,” Florence Police Chief Bruce Walls said at the August meeting.
We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Janet Perez can be reached at jperez@iniusa.org.
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