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Kansas City Council Considers Emergency Responder Radio Upgrades

Kansas City, MO Assistant City Manager Rich Noll
Kansas City, MO Assistant City Manager Rich Noll

Kansas City, MO – The Kansas City city council will vote today on a finalized contract with Motorola to provide a new emergency responder radio system.

The Finance and Audit Committee approved the contract yesterday.

Assistant City Manager Rich Noll provided a timetable for the upgrade.

Rich Noll: "We'll have 8 channels in place and tested by around January first of 2011, and at that point we'll begin migrating departments onto the system. By May, we believe we'll have everybody on and all 24 channels up and running. And by September, 2011, we'll have what's called final acceptance."

The new system will allow police, fire and ambulance crews to talk to each other in the field and to communicate with units from neighboring cities.

The $34 million cost will be paid for from the public safety sales tax plus some money from grants and the general fund.

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