The Washington State Patrol is upgrading its radios to meet pressing federal mandates and to allow troopers to talk with police officers, sheriff’s deputies and firefighters in the areas they patrol.
Earlier this year, the Legislature included $40.1 million in the 2011-13 budget for the State Patrol to start the upgrade.
Another $13 million will be needed in two years to finish the project, said Bob Schwent, electronic services division commander for the State Patrol.
The State Patrol is among law enforcement and fire agencies across the country working to find the money to upgrade their radio systems in the next two to three years because of mandates from the Federal Communications Commission or changes by the vendor.
In Pierce County, the County Council recently voted to ask residents in November to raise the sales tax by a penny on every $10 purchase to pay for an upgrade of law enforcement and fire radios, as well as a new dispatching agency.
Right now, the State Patrol uses VHF radios, which will be affected by the FCC’s actions.
The federal agency is “narrowbanding” VHF and UHF channels as of Jan. 1, 2013.
The State Patrol and other agencies using “wideband” channels must switch to narrower channels to free up space on the spectrum for more users at a time.
For public-safety agencies, that means their radio signals won’t cover as wide of an area as their do now.
Many of the State Patrol’s current radios can’t handle the switch to narrowbanding and must be replaced, Schwent said. The agency also would need build 25 to 30 sites to meet the FCC requirement and have decent coverage.
“We just couldn’t do it in time,” Schwent said.
The State Patrol researched how to address the FCC mandate and decided to upgrade its network, dispatching consoles and radios to a digital radio system.
Troopers will be provided with multi-band radios that will allow them to talk to other police officers, deputies and firefighters, regardless of their radio network.
“It’s going to vastly improve interagency communications,” Schwent said.
The State Patrol will use the $40.1 million to replace the consoles at six dispatch centers. The consoles were installed in 1982 and have been running ever since, Schwent said.
The money also will be used to upgrade its radio network infrastructure and replace about half of the portable radios, which are the older devices. The remaining portable radios – as well as the radios mounted in patrol cars – will be replaced in the second round of funding, Schwent said.
“They are getting old,” Schwent said of the radios. “It’s a little more risky but not a great risk.”
The service life of the portable radios will lengthen because they will be able to link to the new radio network.
Schwent hopes the new network will be in place by October 2012. The date will depend on the weather. When snow starts to fall, it is harder and more challenging for workers to climb the radio towers to upgrade and program the equipment.
“We are really pushing to get this thing completed,” Schwent said.
Stacey Mulick: 253-597-8268
stacey.mulick@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/crime
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