Question No. 1

Shall the City of Lee's Summit, Missouri, issue its general obligation bonds in the amount of $10,000,000 for the purpose of making public safety improvements including the acquisition and installation of new emergency services radio equipment and tower and the construction, furnishing and equipping of new police facilities for training and detention?

Lee's Summit is the 6th largest Police department in the state.

Emergency Services Radio $2 Million

The City is proposing a $2 million upgrade of its existing emergency services radio system.  This system provides radio communications for the Police and Fire Departments, as well as the Public Works and Water Utilities departments.   The current radio system is over 25 years old, and there are areas of the City where emergency services personnel receive little or no radio reception. 

A recent study showed that many components of the current radio system are not public safety rated.  The study also concluded that the system is not capable of meeting the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) mandate of reducing the bandwidth for emergency services radios from the current 25 Mhz to 12.5 Mhz by 2013. 

The $2 million upgrade of the current system will provide a stronger signal for better reception, replace many of the components with public safety rated components, and allow the system to operate in the narrower 12.5 Mhz radio band required by the FCC mandate.  

This project is included as a goal in the citizen's Lee's Summit 360º Strategic Plan.     

Training Facility $8 Million

In addition to the proposed upgrade of the existing emergency services radio system, Question 1 also consists of $8 million to fund the construction of a police training facility and renovations to the current police detention facility.

The training facility will consist primarily of an indoor firing range, training space, and additional storage for evidence and victim’s property. 

The police currently conduct firearm training at an outdoor facility in Sugar Creek.  Availability is limited due to weather conditions and high demand among other law enforcement agencies in the Kansas City metropolitan area.  Because of this, our police officers are able to train with their firearms only once a year.  Best practices in law enforcement dictate that a police officer conduct firearm training at least four times a year.  An indoor firing range will provide Lee’s Summit police officers with a state of the art training location that can be used year-round.  It will also eliminate the cost and time of traveling to an offsite location.   

Training rooms for the classroom component of firearm training will be included in this facility as well.  These multipurpose rooms can also be used for other educational activities such as self defense classes, citizen police academies, and neighborhood watch and business safety training.

View Map of Location

Additional Storage (included in the $8 Million as part of the Training facility)

Additional storage for evidence and victim property will also be included in this proposed facility.  Courts require evidence be produced at the time the case is heard.  Because of this, the Police Department is required to keep all confiscated evidence. Though the Police Department has taken steps to better manage its current evidence storage, the need for additional space has still grown substantially over the past several years.

Additional storage space will also be used to house police equipment such as the bomb truck, emergency service squad vehicle and the surveillance platform.

Redesign/Expand Detention (included in the $8 Million as part of the Training facility)