Cook County Sheriff’s Department Public Safety Radio Communications Upgrade

Level-1 engineered power-protected radio systems for Cook County Sheriff’s $50M upgrade, ensuring resilient emergency communications.

Cook County, the second-largest county in the United States, is home to over 40% of Illinois’ population. Its Sheriff’s Department, the third largest in the state, serves more than 5 million residents across 945 square miles including 140 square miles of unincorporated areas scattered among the county’s 128 municipalities. In addition to patrol responsibilities, the department provides specialized mutual-aid services to suburban agencies and oversees multiple detention centers and police facilities. 

When federal Homeland Security standards introduced new operational thresholds for power redundancy and disaster preparedness, the Cook County Sheriff’s Department launched a $50 million upgrade to its aging public safety radio communications infrastructure. Existing systems lacked the power resilience to meet extended generator run-time mandates, and legacy equipment was unsupported due to manufacturer obsolescence. A new approach was urgently needed to ensure uninterrupted emergency communications across the county’s vast jurisdiction. 

Level-1 Global Solutions, subcontracting to Motorola, led the strategic deployment of a hardened communications and power protection system. Our work began with a county-wide assessment of more than 30 radio tower sites. We evaluated existing infrastructure across dispatch centers, police stations, courthouses, jails, and first-responder hubs, then delivered tailored recommendations and designs for power conditioning and backup. 

What We Delivered 

• Comprehensive system survey of over 30 radio towers and critical communications hubs across Cook County 
• Design and deployment of tower-specific power protection systems integrated with Motorola radio infrastructure 
• Custom power conditioning solutions including generator backup for dispatch centers, police stations, courthouses and jail facilities 
• Three-tiered emergency power architecture, including UPS battery backups (Tier 1), on-site generators with automatic transfer switches (Tier 2), and mobile generator trucks with refueling capabilities for remote support (Tier 3) 
• North-south mobile power redundancy strategy, with deployable generator trucks capable of servicing any tower facing fuel depletion or mechanical failure 
• Compliance with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) standards, including extended generator run-time and hardened security protocols for communication facilities 

By engineering a resilient power and communications architecture, Level-1 enabled the Cook County Sheriff’s Office to meet federal mandates while significantly improving operational reliability. The upgraded systems ensure continuous radio communication for emergency response teams, even under the most severe disaster scenarios. In safeguarding the power integrity of these mission-critical networks, Level-1 helped secure the infrastructure of public safety communications for one of the nation’s most populous counties.