Motorola nabs public safety deal with Va. county

Motorola Inc. won a $10.7 million contract from Chesterfield County, Va., to provide the county with an integrated public safety system, the company announced today.

Under the contract, Motorola of Schaumberg, Ill., will provide computer-aided dispatch, mobile applications and wireless network technologies. The goal of the project is to enable the county's police, fire and emergency medical services to share information and communicate more effectively.

Motorola's computer-aided dispatch system will streamline the county's dispatching process by automating call taking and dispatching functions, according to the company. The wireless portion of the system will give police officers data on criminals and allow them to create reports directly from the field.

These systems will interface to a number of external applications, including the law and fire records management systems. The project also will include a fire records management system from Emergency Technologies Inc. of Raleigh, N.C.

The system also will incorporate Motorola's data network platform, which will provide wireless network for Microsoft Windows on laptop computers, palm computers, vehicle-mounted data terminals and other devices. The system, which will include eight sites, is scheduled for completion in fall 2003.

Motorola, a provider of integrated communications and information solutions, has more than 111,000 employees and had annual revenue of $26.7 billion in 2002.