The gist
Lakeway will purchase 54 Motorola N70 radios—45 for the police department and nine for city officials. The purchase also includes subscriptions to a variety of smart technology, which have an annual per radio cost. The city will be subscribed to the smart technology for six years—five paid years and one promotional year.
America Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, funds will cover the cost of the first two to three years of the smart technology subscriptions, after which the cost will be absorbed into the police budget, according to city documents.
The details
The nine radios that will be available for use by the city manager, emergency manager and other designated staff will only have two smart features, while the police department radios will be equipped with four, according to city documents.
Smart features include:
- Smart Connect, for the police department and city, improves connectivity by allowing the radio to work over LTE cellular network, mitigating dead zones.
- Smart Locate, for the police department, provides GPS information on the location of the radio, a key safety feature for officers.
- Smart Mapping, for the police department, will enable select personnel to view a map of the location of all LPD radios, enhancing situational awareness and safety.
- Smart Programming, for the police department and city, allows radio upgrades and software patches to be completed remotely.
“That’s a vast enhancement to our capability compared to what we can currently do,” Lakeway Police Chief Glen Koen said. “We could get by without using any of these features—we currently are—but it’s a value-add in my opinion.”
