Snoqualmie looks to save on equipping police vehicles
June 27, 2009
By Michael Rowe
The Snoqualmie City Council decided June 22 that it needed a few extra days to gather more information about equipping five new police vehicles for service.
At issue is whether or not the city can save some money on center consoles and truck covers that need to be installed in the city’s five new police vehicles. Police Chief Jim Schaffer told the council that the city could probably buy the equipment for less money than Auto Additions Inc. would charge.
Auto Additions submitted the only bid for outfitting the new police vehicles with lights, radios and other equipment. The company agreed to do the work for $57,060.55. However, the center consoles and truck covers were included in the bid as alternatives. Auto Additions cost for the other equipment is about $14,500.
Councilman Brian Holloway said that if the city included the alternatives in the agreement with Auto Additions, the fund for equipping police vehicles would be nearly depleted. He said he wanted to avoid dipping into reserves.
Schaffer encouraged the council to act quickly, noting that the old vehicles that were being replaced were becoming increasingly unreliable.
The council decided to hold a special meeting on June 25 to decide on awarding the bid. By that time, the city should have more information on how much buying the equipment on its own would cost versus how much Auto Additions would charge.
Another item related to equipping the police vehicles also received the council’s attention. The council approved a resolution for purchasing five new laptops for the new vehicles for $30,820,76.
Police Captain Eduardo Janey, and city network systems engineer P.J. Rodriguez explained why the new computers were needed. Rodriguez said that the old computers were not compatible with the new vehicles, and that after five years of use, they were not functioning well.
Janey said that the new system would be compatible with the Issaquah based dispatch service that the city uses. He said current patrol vehicles could not receive dispatch information or access the Washington and National crime databases.
Janey gave an example of a recent traffic stop where the computer dispatch system would have helped. He said a Snoqualmie officer attempted what he believed to be a high-risk stop on a suspected stolen vehicle. The officer acted on information from a radio dispatch when stopping the vehicle that turned out to not be the stolen vehicle that police were looking for. Janey believes that if the officer had access to dispatch information on his vehicle’s computer, the stop wouldn’t have been made.
“It wouldn’t have happened if the officer could see the info,” Janey said.
According to Janey, the lack of accurate dispatch information could cause a liability issue for the city.
In other business, the council approved an interlocal agreement with Kittitas County that will allow Snoqualmie to send sludge from its sewer plant to the adjacent county.
Reach reporter Michael Bayless Rowe at mrowe@snovalleystar.com or 392-6434, ext. 248.
Comments
Got something to say?
Before you comment, please note:
- These comments are moderated.
- Comments should be relevant to the topic at hand and contribute to its discussion.
- Personal attacks and/or excessive profanity will not be tolerated and such comments will not be approved.
- This is not your personal chat room or forum, so please stay on topic.
