Politics & Government

Glendale Police, Fire Join County Radio System

With new equipment given by St. Louis County, Glendale and other municipalities will be able to better coordinate in times of emergency.

Monday night, the Glendale Board of Aldermen unanimously approved an ordinance that will upgrade the city’s police and fire radio system, allowing them to join a county-wide program to improve emergency communications. The upgrade will come at no initial cost for the city of Glendale.

The process to get all municipalities to share an interoperable radio system began in November of 2009, when St. Louis County voters passed Proposition E-911, which allowed the issuing of bonds for the county to fund the replacement of police, fire and emergency medical service agency radio systems with a countywide interoperable radio system for all public safety agencies.

“Interoperability has been a longstanding goal in the field of public safety, especially in urban areas where numerous agencies would be needed to respond to a large-scale natural disaster, terrorist attack or other emergency impacting thousands of people,” said Glendale City Administrator Jeremy Hayes during the meeting.

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The project will be under the oversight of an Emergency Communications Commission (ECC), which comprises of representatives from municipal police and fire agencies.

The county intends to pay the cost of maintaining the equipment—which will be designed and installed by Motorola—for five years beyond its one-year warranty. Glendale would be responsible for the maintenance cost of the radio equipment thereafter.

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“The Glendale Police and Fire Departments and all other municipal public safety agencies in the County will benefit significantly from this interoperable radio system,” Hayes said. “The public will be better served by the better communications capabilities afforded by the system.”

Ordinance B05-12 was given first reading by the Board of Aldermen at the July 16, 2012 meeting. After the ordinance is adopted and an inventory of existing radio equipment, the ECC will be able to begin providing the City with new radios.

 


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