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Navajo County accepts $2.3M DOJ grant to expand public-safety communications
Summary
The Board accepted a $2,307,000 Bureau of Justice Assistance award to expand interoperable radio coverage, add mobile 'cell bubble' units and improve CAD/geolocation — a project sheriff's staff said grows from prior ARPA and FEMA work and aims to address past 9-1-1 outages and improve response across the county.
The Navajo County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved acceptance of a $2,307,000 award from the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance to expand the county’s public-safety communications infrastructure.
Sheriff leadership and Lieutenant Whipple described the multi-year effort to improve radio interoperability prompted by a multi-day 9-1-1 outage several years ago. The funded work includes acquiring additional mobile and portable radios for county and partner agencies, expanding roughly eight additional radio sites, buying two deployable CRD mobile cell devices to create on-scene cellular coverage, and enhancing computer-aided dispatch (CAD) geolocation and routing features so dispatchers can see nearest units and provide quicker routing.
Sheriff’s staff credited prior ARPA and FEMA investments and thanked Senator Kelly’s and Senator Sinema’s offices for assistance securing federal funds. Staff outlined how the project is intended to benefit deputies and partner agencies across the county and tribal areas, and they described the plan to use prior DEMA funding and other allocations to complete the project.
Board members praised the planning and preparedness work that enabled the county to secure the grant and noted the investment’s potential to increase officer safety and service reliability for residents. There was no recorded opposition; the motion to approve acceptance passed by voice vote.
Implementation will be overseen by the Sheriff’s Office with expected procurement of radios and radio-site equipment, staging of CRD devices at strategic sites, and software upgrades to CAD and mapping features. Staff said some prior funding and future bids will be used to complete the full buildout, and that the county will steward federal funds with attention to procurement and interoperability standards.
