PITTSBURGH — A businessman and ex-friend of the city’s former police chief was sentenced today to three years’ probation for bribing a city official to get a $327,000 contract to put radios and computers in city police cars.

Arthur Bedway Jr., who pleaded guilty in August, was also ordered to pay a $30,000 fine.

He again blamed many of his troubles on the former chief, Nathan Harper Jr., who faces sentencing in federal court next month on unrelated charges stemming from a city police slush fund and failing to file federal tax returns.

“Thirty years of friendship put me on these steps today,” Bedway said outside the U.S. District Court building after his sentencing. “Don’t trust your friends.”

Bedway, 64, contends Harper came up with the idea to rename a security firm owned by Bedway as Alpha Outfitters so the company could bid on the 2007 contract.

Bedway contends Harper received $9,000 for his role in the scheme, a claim Harper’s attorneys have repeatedly denied.

U.S. District Judge Cathy Bissoon told Bedway she found his explanation “credible, albeit not excusable” in sentencing him to probation instead of 12 to 18 months in prison, as recommended by federal sentencing guidelines.

Harper resigned in February and was indicted in March on charges he conspired to set up a secret $70,000 police slush fund using fees collected from bars and other businesses that hire city officers to work off-duty security details.

Harper has pleaded guilty to spending more than $30,000 from the fund for personal reasons and to not filing federal tax returns from 2008 to 2011.