A new 10-year contract between the Shawano County Sheriff’s Department and Motorola is in the works, and it could mean significant changes on the back end.
“The new contract would move us over to a system that Motorola would technically own and operate as part of WIPSN (Wisconsin Public Safety Network). Currently we own the ‘core system’ of our radio, referred to as a K-Core system,” Lt. Chris Madle said.
“The new contract would switch us over to a M-Core system that Motorola would technically own, and we would operate on this network within Shawano County. There would be obvious updates that would come to some of our current equipment to make everything functional on the new system.”
Equipment covered under the current contract, signed in 2018, includes dispatch console equipment (the equipment used at each dispatch position), as well as equipment housed within the radio room at the sheriff’s department and some tower equipment.
“This equipment is what we would call the backbone of our system (K-Core). It is the meat and potatoes of what makes everything work together,” Madle said. “All of our portable radios for officers and squad radios are purchased separately and then programmed to our radio channels.”
The current contract will expire in 2028, but officials want to get an early start on negotiations for a new deal.
In 2025, the sheriff’s department will pay about $154,000 for the operational and maintenance costs of the radio system. By the end of this contract in 2028, the cost will be about $174,000 for the year.
“The reason we started to look at this contract at this time has been due to other contracts we have with Motorola for things such as our body cams, squad cams and dispatch systems,” Madle said. “We want to have a long-term plan for the future for all these contracts. We have been told as a department to plan for and look to the future and not just operate year to year.”
The department received pricing from Motorola on a new 10-year contract that provided some cost savings long term, on the contract cost itself.
“There were some other costs that were brought up at a later time by Motorola for equipment that made us hesitant on the whole picture of this project,” Madle said. “There is also a substantial ‘implementation cost’ that would need to be paid, but long term, based on the projected amounts they gave us to continue our current contract past 2028, the new contract would save us approximately $20,000 per year.”
While there are other companies out there, the sheriff’s department is sticking with Motorola.
“They have by far the best radio communication equipment, and with the rural side of our county, it is vital to have high functioning equipment to ensure communication between dispatch and our first responders,” Madle said. “I don’t want to bash other department or companies, but some other local agencies do not use Motorola and it is very apparent on the radios.”
The department has numerous other contracts with Motorola, so officials are trying to get everything wrapped up into one long-term plan.
“We will still need multiple contracts as they are for different things, but we want a long-term plan for all these contracts together instead of just looking at them the year before they become due,” Madle said.
The make or break of this contract will be the “extras” the sheriff’s department would be able to take advantage of with the WIPSN system.
“The actual cost of the base contract itself isn’t anything to balance or overcome. But on this new system, we would be able to take advantage of higher functioning portable radios, which would provide a huge safety benefit to our officers and the community,” Madle said. “These radios obviously come with a cost, but I feel it would be in our best interest to take full advantage of all these radio capabilities for our officers and community.
“There is also a significant implementation cost. Both of these items we would seek grant funds for, but grant funds aren’t guaranteed. So we would still need the funds in case grant monies aren’t obtained.”
There are other hurdles, but cost is always the big one to overcome. Aside from some of the additional costs, there are many benefits to this switch if it were to happen, Madle said.
kpasson@newmedia-wi.com
Sheriff's department prepping for new communications contract
