[Scan-DC] PG 700 MHz

[Alan Henney]

Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009
County celebrates new $80M radio system
System allows public safety personnel to better communicate
by Daniel Valentine | Staff Writer

Until now, when a Prince George's County police officer was in trouble, there was no sure way of knowing who could help the fastest.

Using an obsolete radio system that required officers to call in their location and status periodically, dispatchers had no way of knowing the exact location of the closest ambulance, patrol car or fire engine — or the location of the officer in trouble, either.

"I can tell you, it's pretty scary," said Vernon Herron, a former state trooper and director of public safety for the county.

"You can't always remember your exact street address or which way you're going when something happens fast," said Maj. Andy Ellis, a county police spokesman.

This week, police communication received an upgrade. Under a new 700 MHz radio system the county police began using Monday, dispatchers can now use GPS to track the location of every unit and send the information accordingly.

"We'll know exactly where that officer is," said Herron, who announced at a news conference Monday morning that the system was now in operation.

Other benefits from the new system include clearer signals, no dead spots in the county that were affected by weather, and the ability for officers to communicate with police, fire and emergency dispatchers in other counties that switched to the newer radios years ago.

Upgrading the radio system is one of the priciest single purchases the county has ever made. It cost $80 million to build the new system, which required installing 21 towers in the county. Federal money helped pay for about $12.2 million of the upgrades, and an additional $2.6 million to switch municipal police radio systems in Greenbelt, Bowie, Laurel and Hyattsville to the new system.

Prince George's County funded the remainder through government bonds.

"It's one of the most expensive projects the county has ever done," said Council Chairman Thomas Dernoga (D-Dist. 1) of Laurel. "But it's one of the most important."

Dernoga and County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) thanked Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (D-Dist. 5) of Mechanicsville at the conference for the federal aid.

The price tag does not include construction of a new 911 center that the county plans this year in Bowie to house the final "brain" of the radio system, which was built by Motorola.

Herron and other officials could not remember Monday how much they are spending on the new building, which replaces the aging school near Seat Pleasant that houses the current emergency center.

Previous estimates placed the cost of the new building at $23 million, and the facility is slated to open in November 2010.

Public officials were unable to say why the county did not begin upgrading its radios until 2004. Many jurisdictions began switching to the new systems in the late 1990s, while the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks prompted others to shift immediately after.

According to Herron and other officials, Prince George's was the only jurisdiction in central Maryland not to have a "trunked," or linkable, radio system.

Herron and others credited Johnson, who gave the go-ahead a few years after taking office in 2002. The executive said he considers the new radios to be part of his legacy in office as he enters his final year.

"We will work until the very last day [of my administration]," Johnson told the crowd of public safety employees and reporters. "The work we are doing now will bring fruition in years to come ... our job is to continue to plant seeds."

The new radio system is the first to utilize the 700 MHz frequencies that were once used by analog televisions. The bandwidth was freed up by the federal government, which ordered television stations to switch to digital broadcasts earlier this year.

The new radios are being phased in among the county police department, beginning in the southern portions of the county, which is most plagued by dead zones. After police begin using the radios full-time this winter, the system will extend to county fire, sheriffs and other emergency services.

The new Motorola system does not allow individuals with police scanners to hear calls as they happen, a common tool the media uses to keep track of fires, crimes and other major emergencies.

"Isn't this a great country?" Herron told reporters about the new system. "You won't be able to do that anymore."

E-mail Daniel Valentine at dvalentine at gazette.net.