Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Radio necessary for public safety communication

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 04 Mar 2004 04:12:02 -0500

Radio necessary for public safety communication

By RYAN SMITH
The Times

Hall County is out of fixes for its aging
communications system.

It's old. It's out-of-date. It doesn't have enough
channels for all the agencies that use it.

And if things don't get better, Doug Derrer fears,
people's lives will be in danger.

"Our center handles 300,000 to 400,000 calls per
year," the county's public safety director said.
"Those have to be dispatched out. If our system
doesn't allow us to dispatch them in a timely
fashion, people's lives may be on the line."

Such is the reasoning of a proposed $16 million
radio system that is part of Hall County's
proposed penny sales tax extension. Voters will
decide the fate of the program during
Tuesday'selection, which includes the presidential
primary and state flag referendum.

If approved, the system would be installed in the
new communications center being built on East
Crescent Drive. It's scheduled to be completed in
November. The facility will house the 911 center,
emergency operations center, fire administration,
code enforcement and the public safety director's
office.

The system also would be "trunked." Hall County
Fire Chief Mike Satterfield said that would allow
someone in the field to be able to transmit a
message, have the system find the nearest open
channel and have dispatch receive it immediately.

"Information (needs) to be relayed," Satterfield
said. "You actually even find where rescue
workers and public safety officers need to ask
questions because they need to get clarification
and they can't. That happens on a daily basis."

Derrer said the money for a new system would
cover the entire system: engineering, antenna
sites, land acquisition, infrastructure, design,
physical facilities and connectivity.

It will take between two and three years to
purchase and install all the necessary equipment,
he added. He also said it is too early to determine
if staffing would change once the system is
installed.

"We're currently using a system that's been in
use for 25 years," he said. "With the number of
frequencies we have, we can't expand anymore.
The best path is to go ahead with a digital system
that will allow us to expand the system we serve."

A number of different agencies use the county's
radio system: Hall County Sheriff's Office and Fire
department, Gainesville Police and Fire
departments, Oakwood Police, Flowery Branch
Police, and even the Department of Family and
Children Services on occasion.

The biggest problem facing public safety agencies is not having any more
channels available under the current system. Derrer said the system has
nine main channels, which all departments must share.

That means the 934 public safety officials (all police, deputies, fire,
county and Gainesville marshals, district attorney's office and animal
control) in the county and municipalities must share airtime.

"I'm looking more at long-range and what it's going (to take) ... to
find a system that is open and up-to-date," said Marty Nix, recently
named head of Hall's communications center. "We don't want to have to
put Band-Aids on it."
Gainesville Police Chief Frank Hooper said his department is allotted
just one channel.
That's the way it has been in the 26 years since he joined the
department.
It's the same for the other municipalities, too.

"Communication is important to us," Hooper said. "Without it, we can't
do our job. The system we have is old technology. We're about 15 years
behind. This would really be a great benefit for us. It would put us
where all public safety agencies could all talk."

But as the county, and its departments, have grown, the problem only has
gotten worse.
"It's very frustrating," said James Von Essen, an officer with the
Gainesville Police Department. "You can't get on a channel because of
routine calls. Sometimes you need to get on, and someone needs to run a
routine traffic stop. We don't have any way of running a nonpriority
call."

Von Essen had a close call when he first joined the Gainesville force in
the late 1990s.  He was sent to a business in the city and became
involved in an altercation with a man inside.

Von Essen had to use pepper spray on the man, who picked up a metal
stool and intended to hit Von Essen with it. The officer was on his own
because his portable radio couldn't get through the steel structure of
the building to the outside.
"When I got out toward the lobby and escorted the guy out, I was able to
get on," he said. "Inside the building, it's a steel-type of building,
and you can't get (a radio call) out."

Which is another advantage of the new system, Derrer said. An ultra-high
frequency system penetrates buildings better.
There are a couple of caveats, though. The new system doesn't cover as
much territory, so the county would need to add a few more
communications antennas throughout the county to support the overhaul.

In November, Hall's board of commissioners funded a $500,000 upgrade of
the current system, which saw additional tower sites and radios, among
others.

"We're up to speed and to the point where we can go ahead with a new
system," Derrer said.

E-mail: [email-masked]

http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/stories/20040225/localnews/466004.html

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