Eric Colwell told the court that many of the handheld and in-car radios used by law enforcement, investigators and other county staff are beyond their typical 7–10 year service life, with some radios 10–12 years old. He presented a replacement plan that would replace handheld radios in FY26 and in-car radios later in FY30.

Colwell said a full replacement price tag for handheld radios was discussed at approximately $2.6 million in FY26 and an additional $1.4 million to replace in-car radios in FY30. Because of the potential budget impact, IT proposed an alternative that staggers handheld replacement over two years: replace 170 law-enforcement handhelds in FY26 at a reported cost of $1.9 million, and replace the remaining 75 non–law-enforcement handhelds in FY27 at about $753,000. Colwell said the two groups are different radio models and splitting the non-law enforcement group into a later year would not materially complicate management.

Colwell explained procurement and logistics concerns with staggered purchases: “If we buy them if we don't buy them altogether, that means that we are likely going to get two different varieties of that radio with two different code plugs and management of those radios becomes a real nightmare,” he said, describing manufacturer production variations.

Commissioners asked about interoperability across county emergency services. Emergency management coordinator Jason (last name not specified in the transcript) said the cities of Wixom Valley and Curtin do not currently have county-issued handheld radios; Colwell said the county has a cache of older radios that could be discussed, and past practice included transferring old radios to other counties for a nominal fee.

Colwell said law-enforcement radios would be priority one and noted past additions of jurisdictions to the countywide system could reduce per-unit costs through economies of scale. No funding decision was taken at the workshop.