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Council approves $1.3 million purchase to migrate police dispatch consoles to Pinellas County radio system
Summary
Council unanimously approved a $1,303,879 purchase order for 12 Motorola dispatch consoles and a NICE logging interface to migrate Clearwater’s dispatch consoles toward interoperability with the Pinellas County radio backbone, a move staff said will reduce long-term maintenance costs.
Clearwater City Council on March 17 approved a purchase order to Motorola Solutions for $1,303,879 to buy 12 dispatch consoles and a NICE logging interface to integrate the city's dispatch center with the Pinellas County radio system.
City Manager Dan Slaughter explained the decision as part of a broader evaluation of the city's land-mobile radio system. For decades Clearwater operated on an L3Harris backbone; Pinellas County operates on Motorola. Slaughter said staff reviewed the costs of continuing to upgrade and maintain Clearwater’s independent system versus migrating console operations to the county backbone and concluded the migration offered fiscal and operational benefits.
Slaughter told council that remaining on the city's current system would require infrastructure upgrades “potentially in the neighborhood of up to $1,800,000” plus an estimated annual maintenance cost of about $350,000 that escalates over time. By contrast, the Motorola console purchase and the NICE recorder will cost roughly $1.303 million with estimated annual maintenance of about $118,000, a difference Slaughter said would yield an annual maintenance savings of approximately $231,000. He added the city can reprogram many existing portable and mobile radios for interoperability rather than immediately replacing all in‑field radios.
Slaughter also noted there will be additional annual costs for some non‑public-safety personnel who remain on radio channels; staff estimated those transition costs at roughly $50,000–$75,000 annually. The city said it will work with Pinellas County to define porting and user fees for any radios that will remain active on the county backbone.
Public comment on the item was limited; one commenter questioned the expense and criticized the city’s public communications. Council members including Ryan Cotton and others supported the purchase, citing benefits for mutual-aid operations and unified communications during multi-agency incidents. The council approved the purchase unanimously.
The purchase order covers consoles (nine for the communications center and three for the emergency operations center) and the NICE logging interface. Staff said the migration would allow improved interoperability with county agencies and offer operational redundancy if the city's communications center were compromised.
Staff will continue detailed coordination with Pinellas County to implement the technical migration, reprogram radios where appropriate and finalize annual maintenance and user-cost arrangements.
