DEPARTMENT: Information Technology Services
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Hugh Miller
SUBJECT: Public Safety Radio System and Equipment
SUMMARY: This item is a briefing on the upgrade and enhancement capabilities of the Public Safety Regional Radio System and need to replace radio handsets for Police and Fire.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The City of San Antonio currently uses a Harris Corporation Enhanced Digital Access Communication System (EDACS) proprietary radio system, which was accepted in 2004. The Radio system is eleven years old and the normal, expected life of these radio systems, which are designed with high reliability, and sustainability is fifteen to twenty years. Radio handsets used to communicate on the radio system are also proprietary but have a shorter, useful life of five to seven years dependent on user and usage.
The City’s radio system is supported and supplied by Dailey & Wells Communications, Inc., a Local and Minority-owned business. Dailey-Wells provides maintenance and support to the system and is the authorized regional reseller of equipment for the Harris Corporation System. The System provides public safety grade, two-way radio communications for the City of San Antonio and surrounding Bexar County. The System currently manages an average of over 300,000 individual radio calls a day from approximately 11,000 public safety and governmental agency users, which includes fifty-six (56) external, multijurisdictional agencies. The City of San Antonio represents approximately 82% of the usage on the System and it is a critical source of communications to the San Antonio Police and Fire Departments.
Assessment of the Current System
A core project team comprised of members from the City Manager’s Office, Information Technology Services Department (ITSD), Police Department (SAPD), and Fire Department (SAFD) along with advisory assistance from an outside consultant, Televate LLC, performed a comprehensive assessment of the EDACs radio system’s challenges in response to FCC mandates which would have required a system change by December 2015. This would have been well before its expected useful life had ended. The FCC mandated requirements were eliminated in October of 2014, allowing cities and counties to extend the usage of their radio system to a more reasonable life expectancy. The team also assessed all aspects of the radio environment to include the fiber infrastructure, towers and radio shelters, and the radio subscriber equipment.
Site upgrades and infrastructure life cycle changes are needed. The team needs to begin working on tower site upgrades and replacing the radio system’s backhaul fiber communications infrastructure within the next fiscal year. The fiber communications infrastructure is based on Cisco Systems’ data transportation technology and is separate and distinct from the radio system it supports. Making these changes will ensure that CoSA is prepared for an eventual radio system replacement that causes minimal disruption to public safety operations.
During the assessment Harris Corporation extended a contractual offer to support the EDACS system through 2022. This offer has been reviewed and endorsed by our consultant Televate, LLC and agrees with the core team’s assessment that the system’s reliability, performance, availability of parts, and engineering support does allow the system to operate through 2022.
Of significant concern is the age of the Police and Fire radio equipment. The majority of public safety radio handsets was purchased in 2003, and are now twelve years old. A reasonable life expectancy is five to seven years.
Recommendations and Options
The team has been working diligently together to develop the best way to move forward with a plan for the Public Safety Radio System upgrade. The team agrees with the manufacturer’s offer to contractually support the EDACS radio system through 2022, is viable and necessary regardless of the timing of the radio system replacement project. The team also agreed that the shelter and tower enhancements and data communications infrastructure should be replaced now.
The initial recommendation to release a Radio System Replacement RFCSP in 2018, and focus on replacing subscriber radios and supporting infrastructure needed for a successful radio system replacement in the future was made to the Public Safety and High Profile Contracts Committees. Based on committee feedback for more transparency to the RFCSP process and associated cost of the radio handsets, the following is an alternative option.
In this option, the RFCSP would be released before the end of year and will be structured to allow bidders to submit proposals for a full radio system replacement, as well as, to provide an alternative bid to maintain the existing radio system and replace radio handsets. Because of the age of the public safety radio handsets and their importance to the safety of our Fire and Police Officers, this option also includes the need to purchase a cache of radios for Police (300) and Fire (150) which will be used to replace units which are failing and non-sustainable as we go through the RFCSP process.
A high level breakdown of the RFCSP schedule is outlined below:
• Pre-solicitation Period (80 days): Develop ILA w/County, RFCSP finalization, committee reviews and approvals
• Solicitation Period (150 days): Recommend 120 days for vendors to engineer solutions and also allow 30 days for extension requests
• Panel’s Initial Assessment (45 days)
• Panel evaluation, post-solicitation briefings and contracting period (120 days)
• Radio System Solution validation and contract completion (90 days)
Conclusion
The recommendations contained within this memorandum will ensure the current radio system is under a maintenance and support agreement until a new system is implemented. It will also give the project team the funding needed to make the necessary enhancements to shelter and radio tower sites, as well as, the back-end communications infrastructure to prepare for a future radio system replacement. The request to purchase a cache of radios will be brought to council in late August. The additional option to begin the RFCSP process now will provide the level of transparency the Committees are seeking and will be structured such that the core team will return to the Public Safety Committee and High Profile Contact Sub-committee to report on progress and recommendations on next steps of the RFCSP process.
ALTERNATIVES: This item is for briefing purposes only.
FISCAL IMPACT: This item is for briefing purposes only.
RECOMMENDATION: This item is for briefing purposes only.