Cambridge police receive good news on photos, bad on vehicles

Police Chief Todd Schuster explained that the move was prompted by T-Mobile’s “Connecting Heroes” plan, which provides phone service to public safety entities at a reduced cost.

“We met with T-Mobile to describe our needs and what equipment we had, and they sent us a proposal to replace all of our equipment – some of which was aging,” Schuster said. The proposal replaces three squad phones used by officers during shifts, five employee phones, 16 wireless hot spots used for connectivity of computers in squad cars, and three Arlo cameras.

“We’re not losing anything in coverage and connectivity, and we’re getting upgraded equipment,” he said.

Schuster said the current bill through Verizon was for no less than $1,100 per month; the T-Mobile cost would be $706 per month for the two years of the contract.

Schuster added that, because of upgraded phones for a couple of officers, there were some cancellation penalties. But the net cost was $19.06 and would come from the “Small Tools and Equipment” budget item.

The motion was unanimously approved.

Squad car purchase reduced

Schuster also relayed some bad news regarding the purchase of new squad cars for the city.

“We received word that on Sept. 8 that the order of one of our 2022 squad cars was canceled,” he said. “And [we were told] it would not be built until 2023 – if we ordered it by the next day. We were also told that Sept. 9 was the last day to order a 2023 model.”

To make matters worse, the manufacturer increased the price of the vehicles by $7,600.

Because of the short time frame – and the lack of time to receive council approval – Schuster, in consultation with Finance Director Caroline Moe and City Administrator Evan Vogel, decided to approve the purchase of two 2023 Explorers.

“If we would not have done that, we would have been several squad cars behind in the replacement plan,” Schuster said.

He also noted that three vehicles were budgeted for 2023. And because the third car for 2022 was not purchased, there still is approximately $40,000 in the capital budget.

“This was already a budgeted purchase – we’re only reducing the number of vehicles purchased by one,” Shogren said.