City OKs $450K For Police Vehicles, Radio Upgrades

CONCORD, CA – The Concord City Council approved the purchase of more than $450,000 worth of police vehicles and software upgrades for radio communications during its regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday evening.

That includes $325,300 for 10 new Ford Police Interceptors, purchased locally from Future Ford of Concord.

There were three vendors who offered prices ranging from $325,250 to $330,240 -- one of which was $50 lower than the price offered by Future Ford -- but the city's procurement procedures allow for a local vendor
preference. The other vendors were located in Redwood City and Napa.

City staff say that replacing vehicles every six to 10 years, at the end of their useful lives, saves money and sustains the reliability of the 271 vehicles currently in the fleet. They plan to replace 30 of those vehicles this fiscal year.

The Council also approved up to $128,000 in spending to upgrade the city's Motorola radio network. That includes $99,519 for software licensing fees and $18,450 to upgrade the radios. That comes to just $117,969, but city staff requested the additional funding as a contingency to cover any additional costs.

The city has 383 Motorola radios throughout the organization, and 369 of them have to be upgraded by June 30, 2020, in order to continue communicating with other agencies throughout the region by radio due to
region-wide upgrades.

By taking advantage of a one-time offer from Motorola to make the purchase at a discounted rate of roughly 40 percent off, city officials said they were able to save taxpayers approximately $56,380.

City officials were not immediately available this morning to comment on the acquisitions.

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