It’s been a long time coming, but new radios are on the way for the Columbus Police Department.
Tuesday night, Columbus City Council unanimously approved entering into a lease-purchase agreement with Motorola to buy about 62 digital radios for CPD. The radios will allow the department — which still relies on old analog models — to talk directly to other local first responders, as well as accessing a statewide communication network.
Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office and Columbus Fire and Rescue are both already on the state system, and CPD has been unable to directly communicate with either. Officers have instead had to relay messages via 911 dispatchers.
“I talked to the sheriff today, and we’ll be able to talk with each other now,” Police Chief Joseph Daughtry Sr. told the council Tuesday night. “This will also be a statewide system, so if we have a national disaster, we can switch to a channel and talk to anyone, as well as anyone in the Golden Triangle.”
Public Information Officer Joe Dillon told The Dispatch on Wednesday that previously officers had issues with analog radio reception in certain places, especially when inside “big buildings” like Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle.
The new radios will be handhelds, Daughtry told the council.
“In the city limits, we’re not a rural (area),” he said. “If we want to add radios in the cars in the future, we can. But right now I want to make sure all the officers have (handhelds).”
Dillon said the city had extensively tested the handhelds and found no problems with them.
“We were successful anywhere we were in the city,” he said. “It’s harder to pick up when they’re inside a police car, so we tested them (inside cars) and inside buildings we have a hard time with, like (Baptist) and Walmart, and they worked beautifully.”
The radios offer much stronger encryption than the analog models did, Dillon said, and also have more officer-safety features.
“An officer can push a button if they need help and it will immediately tell others that he needs help and give his location,” Dillon said. “It also has a thing where if an officer goes down and it doesn’t detect movement it will send out an alert.”
The new radios will give the department flexibility for setting up event-specific channels, he said.
“For example, with the Market Street Festival, we can set up a specific channel so day-to-day communications don’t have to go over that one, to help relieve the load on 911,” Dillon explained.
Money for the lease-purchase will mostly come from a state fund, Dillon said.
“Every time CPD writes a ticket, $3 from that ticket goes into a state wireless communication fund that’s run by the Department of Public Safety,” he said. “The mayor found out about the fund last year. We didn’t know that money was available to us.”
Chief Financial Officer James Brigham told The Dispatch the city had about $160,000 in the fund. The total cost of the radios comes to $264,905, with a total yearly payment of $62,543 over five years at 5.65 percent interest.
In 2021 the city looked at buying CPD new radios at a cost of $235,000, but the expenditure had to be scrubbed after the discovery of a $1.5 million accounting error late in the budget process.
“We don’t pay anything for the first year,” Brigham said. “After that we’ll pay out of the money in that fund, and that should take us through at least three years of the five-year term of the lease. The city won’t have to put any money into the payments until then.”
The only remaining hurdle is the state, Dillon said.
“We have to go before the state wireless communication commission for approval to spend the money,” he explained. “The state wants to make sure what we’re buying is compatible with the state network.”
The city will make its pitch at the commission’s Feb. 2 meeting, Dillon said, and order radios as soon as the commission approves the purchase. It will take about eight weeks to get them.
“It’s important to the chief and the mayor that local agencies be able to communicate with each other easily,” Dillon said.
Garbage service request for proposals
Also on Tuesday, the council voted unanimously to request proposals for residential garbage collection.
The city is currently served by Golden Triangle Waste Services, which has been struggling with mechanical issues and replacing aging trucks. As a result its garbage collection is lagging.
Mayor Keith Gaskin said earlier this month at a press conference the city would put out an RFP for a new garbage collection outfit.
The RFP asks for trash pickup twice a week and asks the company to provide each residence with a trash container, Brigham said.
The goal is to implement the new service by Sept. 1, Brigham said, which is when the city’s contract with Golden Triangle Waste Services expires. Interested companies have to meet certain requirements for equipment and must have a headquarters within 45 miles of Columbus.
The proposals will be due in late February.
Vice Mayor Joseph Mickens said he feared a new provider would bring higher prices.
“I’m seeing a drastic hike in price,” Mickens said. “Right now we’re at two pickups for $10.90, and what I’m hearing is that we’re not going to be able to get one pickup for that.”
GTWS charges the city $10.90 per customer per month, but the city charges residents $17.50, which includes landfill charges and other fees.
Brigham disagreed.
“Our current provider has a process that is probably as uneconomical as it could be with a driver and two riders,” he said. “The new equipment I’m hoping we’ll see is a driver and a handler to run the equipment.”
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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