Tim Hrenchir, Topeka Capital-Journal

Shawnee County will buy a multimillion dollar public safety radio system from Motorola Solutions Inc.

County Commissioners Ted Ensley, Mary Thomas and Shelly Buhler voted 3-0 Monday to pick Motorola over Cassidian, the other company being considered. Commissioners authorized the county’s emergency communications management board – a group of law enforcement and emergency response officials – to work with Motorola to seek to achieve further savings.

Officials with Motorola, Cassidian and the county disagreed at Monday’s meeting over the apples-to-apples amounts those companies were seeking to charge the county to buy the system containing the options it wants.

County counselor Rich Eckert said the price tag was $12,097,357 for Motorola’s system and $12,497,813 for Cassidian’s.

A Cassidian representative challenged any suggestion that his company was seeking to charge more than Motorola.

Topeka Police Chief Ron Miller, chairman of the emergency communications management board, told commissioners that body had voted unanimously to recommend they pick Motorola. He said Motorola offers more in terms of infrastructure, warranty and maintenance.

When Ensley made a motion to approve that selection, he initially received no response. Thomas made a comment about the silence being “deafening” before Buhler seconded the motion and commissioners approved it.

Miller said the Motorola system will enable authorities to “encrypt or decrypt anything we want” in terms of allowing the public to hear police radio traffic using scanners.

Shawnee County’s sheriff would be charged with deciding specifically what traffic would be encrypted, Miller said.

Sheriff Herman Jones told reporters after Monday’s meeting he had no issue with allowing the public to continue to hear traffic involving such situations as fires and traffic stops.

But Jones said he thinks scanner traffic should be encrypted in situations where that is necessary for officer or public safety, such as when officers are going on a drug raid or involved in hostage negotiations.

Eckert said last week that Motorola and Cassidian both offer two encryptions – one called “advanced digital privacy” which, with some work, can be hacked, and another called “advanced encryption standard,” which virtually can’t.

Monday’s vote arranges for the county to acquire both types of encryption, Eckert said.

Local officials for more than a year have looked at buying a digital public safety radio system to replace the 15-year-old, 800-megahertz analog system used by almost all law enforcement officers, firefighters and emergency medical responders within Shawnee County. Commissioners were told the county had no choice but to replace that system.

Local law enforcement and emergency response officials asked commissioners in February 2011 to enter into a $19.2 million lease-purchase agreement with Motorola to acquire a digital system. That figure included about $1 million to buy land and construct buildings.

Miller said Monday that commissioners saved taxpayers about $6 million when they opted not to enter into that agreement and started the negotiation process that put Motorola and Cassidian in competition with each other.

Miller estimated costs for the project will now total about $13.2 million, with slightly more than $12 million going to Motorola and about $1 million being paid to buy land and construct buildings, costs that won’t be covered by Motorola’s current offer.

Eckert said plans called for bonds to be issued to finance the purchase, and paid off using proceeds from a 53-cent 911 tax the county receives after cellphone owners pay it as part of their monthly bill.

Participants often used technical radio jargon at Monday’s meeting, where a Cassidian representative said the company was pleased to have played a role in driving down the cost of Shawnee County’s system.

At one point, representatives for Motorola and Cassidian stood together at the lectern in commission chambers debating each other.

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