VHF radio questions

I am in a community safety patrol organization that walks city streets and can be a mile apart at times with buildings. From what I can find VHF radios would be best for our needs. Is this true?
Without a repeater, do you need a license and how do you go about it?
Also what radios would you recommend for us if we do not want to aquire a license?
I have tried FRS radios but the buildings interfere too much and we have no contact. Thank you.

Use MURS capable radios.
Up to 2 watts, fine for your situation.
The Moto XTN series is a tough radio and easy to program and use.
Kenwood makes nice stuff as well.

Our most popular MURS capable radios are the Kenwood TK2200 and the Motorola XV2100. These two models are preset to MURS frequencies. The Motorola XTN series is being discontinued, so I would probably recommend the Kenwood in this case. The Motorola RDX radios that replaced the XTN’s do not support MURS freqs.