Approval to purchase up to three (3) K-9's for the Fort Pierce Police Department K-9 Unit in the amount not to exceed $30,000.

The police department requests approval to purchase three (3) new K-9's.  Our agency, at one time, had three (3) full time multi-purpose K-9 Teams and one (1) single purpose narcotics dog.  Our K-9 Teams are dual certified in Patrol Functions and Narcotics Detection. Currently, the police department only has one (1) K-9 Team due to having to retire three (3) of the dogs over the past several years. Unfortunately, due to budgetary constraints, we have not been able to replace these K-9 Teams. The police department recently received several donations that will enable us to purchase these K-9's.  Once these three (3) new K-9 Teams are trained, the police department will have one (1) K-9 Team per shift. 

The police department will be traveling to the Metro-Dade K-9 Services Police Dog Training Center, in Miami to first review, inspect, and evaluate the available kennel of K-9's.  If Metro-Dade K-9 has three (3) K-9's that pass inspection, then the police department will purchase all three (3) K-9's.  However, if they only have one (1) or two (2) K-9's that pass inspection, then the police department will only purchase the one (1) or (2) K-9's.  Due to the uniqueness of purchasing K-9's, the police department will also evaluate the available kennel of K-9's from Southern Coast K-9 in Volusia County.   

This purchase has to be coordinated with the K-9 Certification School that these K-9 Teams will be attending.  The purchase will be done the week of January 10, 2018, and the school will start the week of January 17, 2018. 
 

The Police Department is recommending approval to waive the bid process due to the uniqueness of this expenditure and approve this request to purchase up to three (3) K-9s from the most qualified vendor , Metro-Dade K-9 Services Police Dog Training Center, Miami, FL, and if necessary from secondary vendor, Southern Coast K-9, Volusia County, FL.

The alterative is to find another vendor to purchase these three (3) K-9's.   

Frank J. Amandro, Deputy Chief

Johnna Morris, Director Finance, Robert Ridle, Lieutenant; James Grecco, Acting Lieutenant; John Schramm, Sergeant; Tad Linstadt, Acting Sergeant