Henrico Police

[nfc2014]

I was reading the Henrico county Proposed budget for FY2013-14 to FY 2017-18 and saw on page9 that the police dept has asked for 38,420,000 dollars to replace the emergency communications system .Do the citizens of Henrico really think this amount is necessary.If you think this amount is a bit high I urge you to call your local Board of Supervisor member and see what they think.Ask them how much more it cost because of unnecessary encryption that your Chief of Police wants to add to the new radio system.I have no problem with them replacing the current system.Just keep the new system set up like the current system is.Routine dispatch open vice surviellence and narcotics encrypted.I wonder how much money could be saved.

 

[SCPD]

FYI, encryption is already included on the newer radios, and their new system will probably Phase 2 so they'll probably be getting APX mobiles and portables. APX radios are not cheap, $3000- $5000

 

[nfc2014]

With that being said why would not Henrico County consider installing a Phase 1 system like Hanover County and other local PD depts in central Va are using.Looks like to me this would provide them with an excellent system and would also have interop capabilities with surrounding Phase 1 counties and cities.Also what about interop with Va. State Police.And in closing ,would this save taxpayer dollars.

 

[SCPD]

All newer systems are being mandated to be Phase 2 Compatible, they can still have interopability with surrounding jurisdictions, called patches, so it could be Phase 1, but they have to have Phase 2 compatible radios

 

[rnehls]

"With that being said why would not Henrico County consider installing a Phase 1 system like Hanover County and other local PD depts in central Va are using.Looks like to me this would provide them with an excellent system and would also have interop capabilities with surrounding Phase 1 counties and cities.Also what about interop with Va. State Police.And in closing ,would this save taxpayer dollars."



Phase 2 systems allow for double the voice traffic with the same number of frequencies. This allows for more efficient use the RF resources and allows the system to grow. Phase 2 radios have the ability to drop back to phase 1 so interoperability is not an issue. The cost saving you speak of really does not exist since as chanman noted APX radios are 3-5K and Motorola no longer manufactures the XTS series of radio's and are pushing all new system buyers to phase 2 systems.

 

[nfc2014]

I was thinking about what you said about Motorola.All they care about is the bottom line.I wonder if the people who control the purse strings in our local governments really know all the options they have available when it comes to purchasing a new radio system.It is easy to order all the newest bells and whistles when you are spending your constituents hard earned tax money.

 

[SCPD]

They really don't have any control of what features the radios have, NOWADAYS ALL radios come with encryption

 

[Ghstwolf62]

I was thinking about what you said about Motorola.All they care about is the bottom line.I wonder if the people who control the purse strings in our local governments really know all the options they have available when it comes to purchasing a new radio system.It is easy to order all the newest bells and whistles when you are spending your constituents hard earned tax money.

I think I've mentioned it before but I have multiple radios where encryption is a check mark in a box on the programming software.

Now the quality of the encryption I have varies from dismal to 256AES but its as simple as checking the box when programming the radio. I can also set it so I can press a button and turn it on and off as I want.

Its not Motorola "Selling" them anything really. As the above poster stated, its standard these days.

 

[nfc2014]

Ok Thanks for the information.I guess it is up to each locality how much encryption they want use.