Madeline Buckley, South Bend Tribune

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — After touring the police department’s communications center for its Monday meeting, the Common Council will ask for additions to the 2013 budget to revamp what members said was outdated equipment serving the city’s emergency and non-emergency dispatches.

The council also asked after the tour that the department store its police recordings – at the center of an ongoing controversy – in a fireproof and weather-protected safe.

The tapes currently remain locked in the desk drawer of communications director Diana Scott.

The council’s Monday meeting took a detour, though, due to miscommunications between police and the council about whether the tour of the communications center was open to the public.

The council had planned the tour to understand the needs of the center, which oversees the city’s public safety radio and computer communications.

Council Vice President Oliver J. Davis, D-6th, said the council planned the tour as its open meeting, meaning media and members of the public could attend.

But South Bend police Division Chief Gary Horvath said the department believed the tours would be given solely to the individual council members.

Members of the public are restricted from entering the communications center for security reasons, Horvath said.

Reporters and a small group of city residents came to the meeting with the intention of seeing the center, though only council members were allowed access.

After touring the center, council member Tim Scott said a new, up-to-date system could be installed for about $60,000.

“We’re going to push for that to be part of the budget,” Scott, a member of the information and technology committee, said.

Davis said the council will begin looking into what funds are available this year to begin renovations right away, as well as lobbying to allot funds in next year’s budget.

“Our safety comes first,” he said.

The council also pushed for a fireproof safe to protect all South Bend Police Department recordings.

Horvath said the department ordered such a safe Monday morning. He said the safe is a 19-inch by 19-inch by 20-inch box.

“We need a more secure place,” Davis said, noting that as they are now, the recordings are susceptible to fire, water and heat damage.