Westminster council approves purchase of new police cars, radios

The Westminster Common Council approved more than $350,000 of added resources for the Westminster Police Department this month.

The council unanimously approved the purchase of four Dodge Durango all-wheel drive SUVs with emergency equipment, 12 Motorola portable police radios and desk chargers, and four Motorola mobile vehicle police radios.

Mayor Mona Becker said the cruisers and radios are an “important upgrade” in order for Westminster police to keep community members safe and continue to collaborate with law enforcement from other offices, such as the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office and Maryland State Police.

“Public safety is something that we pride ourselves on very much in the city of Westminster,” Becker said.

The police equipment upgrades are part of an incremental process to update the department’s equipment during the next few years, Becker added.

Three replacement police vehicles will be purchased for $195,000 as part of the city’s fiscal 2025 budget, according to the council’s July 8 agenda. But since another police vehicle was recently totaled in a collision, the department has added another new vehicle to its request, according to Maj. Christian Price, of the city police department.

The Westminster Police Department employs about 44 sworn officers and has about 26 vehicles used for patrols, Price said. The four new vehicles will replace older models from 2014, 2015 and 2016, he added.

Criswell Fleet Sales of Gaithersburg will supply the vehicles. The total cost of the four cars with emergency equipment and exterior markings installed is $273,112, according to the council’s agenda. The council will need to amend the budget to add about $60,000 to cover the cost of the fourth car; some of the purchase price will be covered by the police department’s insurance, according to the council agenda.

Police patrol vehicles experience a large amount of “wear and tear,” Price said, with officers using them at all hours of the day, and need to be regularly replaced. The department also continuously upgrades its equipment because of rapidly evolving technology, he added.

Motorola, an electronics manufacturer that produces Android handheld devices and smartphones, is the department’s supplier. Because new devices are created so frequently, Price said the police department has handheld and vehicle radios that can no longer be repaired.

“Our radios are so old that Motorola doesn’t service them anymore,” Price said. “So when they break, they break and we gotta buy one of the new ones.”

The 12 portable police radios approved for purchase by city officials will be carried by officers at all times, according to Price. The four new mobile police radios will be put in the new cars.

Each police vehicle has a mobile radio with it, while there are 58 portable radios that officers carry, according to the agenda. About $73,500 is allocated in the fiscal 2025 budget for the portable radios. The total cost of the 12 new portable radios came in about $3,000 under the budget.

The cost of the mobile radios matched the budgeted amount of $25,435, according to the council’s agenda.

The department requests updated equipment each fiscal year to space out the upgrades and prevent one large expense,   Price said.

“We’re working hard to ensure we have the equipment needed to do our jobs,” Price said.

The Westminster Mmayor and Common Council meet on the second and fourth Monday of every month. The next meeting will be on July 22.