It’s been more than two decades since the Vienna Police Department bought new portable radios for its officers, but that will change soon.
The Vienna Town Council on Dec. 6 unanimously approved the purchase of 50 latest-generation Motorola APX NEXT portable radios from the only available vendor, Motorola Solutions Inc. The $364,621 cost includes a 5-percent contingency allowance above the quoted price.
Town officials will pay for the radios using federal funds from the America Rescue Plan Act.
For the last eight years, Vienna police officers have been communicating with older radios obtained from Fairfax County police after that department upgraded its equipment.
The new radios have been on the police department’s wish list for years and dovetail nicely with public-safety aspects of ARPA funding, said Vienna Police Chief James Morris. In addition, instead of playing technological catchup with nearby law-enforcement agencies, Vienna police now will lead the regional pack, he said.
“We shouldn’t have to revisit this for many years,” he added.