The Rocklin Police Department exclusively uses VHF radio frequencies. Rocklin’s neighboring law enforcement agencies in Placer County and Sacramento County use a variety of 800MHz and VHF radio frequencies. In order for a Rocklin Police Officer to communicate with many of our allied agencies, such as the Roseville Police Department, the officer would need a Dual Band Radio or a second 800MHz radio. Dual band radios allow the user to switch between VHF and 800MHz frequencies.
The Rocklin Police Department has a total of sixty-three (63) sworn personnel and four community service officers that conduct uniformed field work requiring dual band radios. This results in an overall need for sixty-seven (67) dual band radios. Additionally, the Department would like to maintain two additional radios for an overall count of sixty-nine (69).
The cost of a dual band radio is more than $8,000. Over the past seven years, the Department has been awarded, or co-awarded, Homeland Security Grant (HSG) funds to purchase dual band radios. As of March 2022, the Department has thirty-six (36) Motorola APX dual band radios. The Department’s radio equipment is all Motorola, maintained under an existing Motorola service agreement. Motorola is also the vendor for all Department radio equipment.
At this time the Department would like to purchase an additional thirty-three (33) dual band radios. Funding is available as follows:
A. The Department has recently received confirmation of 2021 HSG grant funds that will fund the purchase of ten (10) dual band radios (Exhibit 1).
B. At the December 14 2021 City Council meeting, the City Council authorized a commitment of funds totaling $186,902 for the Department to jointly purchase a Tactical Unit Vehicle with the City of Roseville. The cities of Rocklin and Roseville have shared a joint SWAT Team and related equipment. The current shared Tactical Unit Vehicle is over 15 years-old and is also shared with the Placer County Sheriff’s Office. However, in March the Roseville Police Department informed the Rocklin Police Department they had secured full funding to purchase the Tactical Unit Vehicle. The sole purchase by one department is ideal as the aspect of budgeting and paying for and/or reimbursing for operational costs and repairs is difficult if co-owned. Therefore, the Police Department is requesting the $186,902 previously approved for the Tactical Unit Vehicle be repurposed to purchase twenty-three (23) dual band radios.
The Department has obtained proposals from Motorola (Exhibits 2 & 3) for the purchase of thirty-three (33) dual band radios. Rocklin Municipal Code Section 3.04.090(D) authorizes the City to contract for the purchase of goods, without prior competitive bidding, with vendors who have been awarded contract by government agencies (known as “piggybacking”). Both of the Motorola contracts use pricing from the Houston-Galveston Area Council (HGAC) which is a nationally known pricing index (Exhibit 4). The HGAC is open to municipalities and allows for the best possible pricing for government customers that order in smaller amounts.
The Resolution before the City Council for consideration authorizes the City Manager to purchase thirty-three (33) dual band radios from Motorola Solutions Inc. in an amount not-to-exceed $270,630, and authorizes appropriations to fund the purchase. Approval of the staff recommendation would bring the Department’s total dual band radio inventory to sixty-nine (69).