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Shelby County to buy $3.1 million radio system | Stories from The Birmingham News - al.com )
Shelby County will buy a $3.1 million digital radio system that is expected to be used by the sher**iff's office, police departments and emergency responders throughout the county.
The county's school board and other agencies are also being eyed as potential users of the system, which is expected to be up and running in about 18 months.
The radio will be Project 25, or P25 compliant, which means the sheriff's office, other law enforce*ment and rescue units will be able to communicate with each other over the same system. P25 is a set of standards that have been estab*lished for public safety to be able to communicate with each other.
Interoperability, the capacity for law enforcement and emergency responders to be able to talk to each other, especially during crisis events, became a priority after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Alabama is working on plans for a statewide P25 system.
The Shelby County Commission has authorized County Manager Alex Dudchock to purchase a P25 compliant, wide area radio net*work system from Harris Corpora*tion of Melbourne, Fla.
Harris beat out two other com*panies for the radio project. The company submitted the lowest price for the cost of putting in the system and its operation over a 10-year period.
The county spent 11 months analyzing various plans before choosing Harris.
Phil Burns, manager of the county's department of Informa*tion Technology Services, said the county's next move will be to get a contract in place with the com*pany.
Once that has been done, crews will begin installing anten*nas at five sites throughout the county, he said. Other equipment will be needed in Columbiana to make the system work. There will be a period of testing once every*thing is installed, Burns said.
Burns said he and Dud*chock plan to visit Ft. Ben*ning and Spaulding County, Ga. Both places have Harris P25 systems in use. The sheriff's office will be first on the county's system. The P25 system will allow the sheriff's office to replace an analog, single-channel sys*tem it has been using since the 1960s, Burns said.
The total cost of buying, installing and running the system for 10 years will be about $4.2 or $6.6 million, depending on how many users are on the system, county officials said.
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Shelby County to buy $3.1 million radio system
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