BACKGROUND:
The State Homeland Security Program (SHSP) is a grant program under the umbrella of FEMA’s Homeland Security Grant Program. Started in 2003, the grant program assists in providing funding to support the implementation of risk-driven, capabilities-based State Homeland Security Strategies to address capability targets. Cathedral City Police Department applied for funding to assist with the expenses of transitioning from our current ERICA communications platform to the county-wide PSEC platform. The acceptance of this grant award will provide financial assistance to Cathedral City Police Department to achieve the goal identified by City Council on March 24 th, 2021, to migrate to the PSEC radio system.
DISCUSSION:
The State Homeland Security Program (SHSP), one of three components of the Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP), assists state, local, tribal, and territorial efforts to build, sustain, and deliver the capabilities necessary to prevent, prepare for, protect against, and respond to acts of terrorism. The City of Cathedral City, as a subrecipient of the County of Riverside Emergency Management Department, has been awarded $142,280 to be used specifically towards the required software upgrades to our six dispatch consoles and the purchase of three new PSEC compatible consolettes.
The transition from ERICA to PSEC will provide interoperable communications between Riverside County law enforcement agencies in efforts to prevent, respond to, and investigate terrorist or domestic extremist events. This will increase effective responsiveness to local and regional incidents and support enhanced preparedness for disasters unrelated to acts of terrorism.
In 2020, Cathedral City Police applied for the SHSP grant to assist the department with transitioning to a county-wide seamless radio communication system. Our application was approved, and we were awarded $142,280 to be dispersed in 2022. Within our application, the funding request included $33,000 for three upgraded PSEC compatible consolettes and $109,280 to be used toward the required software upgrades to the six dispatch consoles within the communications center.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no financial impact to the General Fund.