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MANAGF,MENT SERVICES DEPARTMENT <br /> MIS DIVISION <br /> Memorandum No. 2007-08 <br /> June 26, 2007 <br /> MEMO TO: Honorable Mayor Osborne and City Council <br /> FROM: Steve G an, City Manager �,,�$ <br /> Gerard J: uer, Assistant City Man er`�" <br /> James An rson, Chief of Police <br /> David S. ohnston, Manager, MI ivisior� ,;� <br /> �'� <br /> SUBJECT: Emer�ency Services Data Communications Up�rade <br /> SUMMARY RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends that Council approve the <br /> resolution at Enclosure 1, authorizing the Mayor to execute the contract at Enclosure 2 <br /> for a dedicated data circuit to support the upgrade/modernization of emergency services <br /> iYiobile data communications. <br /> BACKGROUND: In 1996, the City of Decatur underiook a modernization project to <br /> provide mobile data computers for in-car use by Police officers and fire units. At that <br /> time, the data communications backbone installed was a state-of-the art radio system, <br /> operating in the 800 MHz band, owned and operated by the city, and capable of <br /> maximum data transmission throughput of 9,600 bits of data per second (9.6 kbps). �'his <br /> data rate was sufficient for its time, permitting efficient exchange of small text messages, <br /> supporiing dispatching operations and minor data exchanges. Since that time, however, <br /> unmet Police and Fire information needs have burgeoned, to include the need for <br /> exchange of graphical images, mapping information, detailed data inquiries, on-line <br /> accident detail reporting to the State, and the direct postir�g from the field of Police report <br /> documents, which would allow officers to spend more time on the streets and less in <br /> transit or in the Police reports room. A joint Police;��ire/MIS effort to identify an <br /> affordable and cost-effective replacement strategy investigated alternatives ranging from <br /> upgrade or replacement of the existing system, to migration to higher frequency/ <br /> throughput systems, to partnering with other communities in the financing of complex <br /> message switching equipment. <br /> "I'he 800 MHz trequency band is limited by physics in the amount of data that can be <br /> exchanged across it, to an achievable maximum of just less than 57 kbps, at a cost nearly ' <br /> triple that of the original radio system. Other available frequency bands, while permitting ; <br /> higher data transmission rates, are limited, again by physics, to extremely shurt ranges. ', <br /> Thus any new proprietary system installed by the city would require an extremely high ', <br /> number of fixed antennas and transmitters, similar in density to a full county-wide Wi- � <br /> Mesh implementation, a cost-prahibitive alternative. No proprietary solution examined <br /> 1 <br />