The Guilford County Sheriff’s Department recently bought a slew of new vehicles to chase you down with, and – as everyone knows when it comes to law enforcement vehicles – they have to be packed to the brim with gear and equipment.

Now it’s time for Guilford County government to buy about $635,000 worth of those needed items for the department.

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners is expected to vote to approve the money for that equipment at its Thursday, June 2 meeting.

According to information provided to the commissioners in advance of the meeting, the Guilford County Purchasing Department has secured approval to get an exemption to the competitive bidding process.  When it comes to some larger dollar purchases like these, the county doesn’t need to obtain competitive bids because the purchase is being made with “a piggyback contract purchase” from vendors authorized through state purchasing contracts made under “a group purchasing consortium/program.”

The following are all being made through state purchasing contracts:

  • 25 in-car radios from Motorola Solutions for $166,326.
  • 35 in-car camera systems for $174,72 from GovDirect.
  • The purchase and installation of equipment such as lights and sirens from Dana Safety Supply for $294,860.

The Board of Commissioners approved money for purchasing the squad cars and other vehicles in December of last year, and the Sheriff’s Department had to work extra hard to find the vehicles they needed.

Due to pandemic-related supply chain conditions and other economic variables, it’s difficult to find quality new and used cars – and the Sheriff’s Department’s needs are much more specific than those of a usual buyer.

However, now that it has the cars, the department needs to equip them to catch and pull over bad guys and bad drivers. The purchase is expected to be made on a unanimous vote by the board this week.