Police awarded grant for new portable radios

“It’s giving us a leg up on the replacement of the radios by increasing the amount that we were going to get this year.” — Administrative Lt. Toby Burgett

Painesville Police Department was awarded a grant to purchase new portable radios, a decision that Administrative Lt. Toby Burgett said will help maintain reliable communications.

City Council voted 6-0 on Feb. 21 to accept the grant, with Council President Christine Shoop excused on leave. According to a legislative report, the department will add the $55,261 State Homeland Security Grant to $61,000 that the city previously budgeted to purchase radios.

“We’re very happy,” Burgett said, adding, “It’s giving us a leg up on the replacement of the radios by increasing the amount that we were going to get this year.”

He noted at the meeting that the majority of the department’s radios come from 2010.

“The radios are really high quality radios, what we have, and they last,” Burgett said. “Thirteen years is a long time, and things start breaking, things start wearing out.”

He added that a number of older radios do not support the advanced encryption standard the county agencies are planning to adopt.

Burgett later explained the radios are “critical for officers to communicate.”

“They’re very expensive, and they are basically the lifeline between the officers and dispatch, so you’ve got to have radios that work, they’ve got to be able to function and you’ve got to have the best product and quality product for your people, so you know they’re safe,” he said.

“You’ve got to hear what they’re saying in all kinds of bad conditions and noise conditions,” Burgett added.

The Homeland Security Grant Program is administered by the Ohio Emergency Management Agency with grants from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to the Ohio EMA and Ohio Department of Public Safety websites.

Both web pages note that the program is “designed to enhance the capacity of state and local jurisdictions to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from incidents of terrorism involving chemical, biological, nuclear or explosive weapons and cyberattacks.”

“We’ve not received this grant before,” Burgett said. “We’ve been working with a grant-writing team for the city and gotten several grants with their help, and we’re very happy with the grant-writing team that’s been helping us.”