City of Longview to purchase new public safety communications system

The city of Longview is targeting replacement of its 20-year-old public safety communications system.

Members of the city’s purchasing department opened sealed proposals this week from nine vendors. City spokesman Shawn Hara said the requests for proposal were looked at and will be evaluated without price information attached.

Hara said with these initial requests, the emphasis is more “on what quality of what you’re getting before the price.”

The proposals now will be evaluated by a committee that considers “the completeness of a proposal and how well the proposal meets the needs of the city and departments,” according to information from the city.

The committee will include representatives from police, fire, public safety communications and police records department since the computer-aided dispatch system is used by all, Hara said. Information services will assist with the process as well, he added.

Proposals are scored and evaluated on a number of factors and criteria.

The city’s current computer-aided dispatch system is about 20 years old and in need of updating, Hara said.

“Just like any technology-based thing, you’ve got to do updates,” he said.

While there is no concrete timeline, Hara said the process should last about 18 months, which puts it done after construction of the new Longview Police Department is complete.

If the new facility opens before then, the old computer-aided dispatch system will be used until the new one is ready, Hara said.

The budget for the project will come after cost estimates of the proposals are reviewed, which will not occur until the evaluation committee meets, Hara said.

Once needs and availabilities are addressed, funding will be identified, he said.