I'm working on broadening our acquisition strategy for the VHF radios used in local fire service. Is anyone aware of a baseline standard for what we'd call public safety grade VHF radios? I am hoping to find documentation that would support the selection of new radio equipment based on it's ability to perform in the conditions experienced by our fire service. With competitor radio products that I'm very familiar with, long time reputation in public service work has created a universally accepted yet unwritten standard that speaks to hard use survivability and on-the-job durability in harsh service. While Motorola has a long been considered the defacto standard for public safety radio equipment, operational budgets don't always allow for the purchase of this gear and as such ICOM, YAESU and Kenwood product lines must be considered. 

After several hours of web searching, I have not found anything that will help build a feature set shopping list for new radio equipment  Any and all contributions would be greatly appreciated. 

Paul B. Peters
Communications Group Coordinator - Central Island 911 (FireComm South)
Public Safety Department
Cowichan Valley Regional District