The News Room [News Archive]
Sheriff Contact: John Roach: 313-224-0615
Release Date: Monday, September 20, 2004
New communications system
to plug critical gaps in county’s
homeland security response --- Sheriff set to receive up to $2.4M
from County Executive’s
grant
Law enforcement agencies across Wayne County soon will be able
to respond more quickly to a plane crash or bomb threat, thanks
to a new communications system Sheriff Warren Evans today announced
he plans to purchase. Evans said County Executive Robert Ficano’s
homeland security department notified his office recently that
it would release up to $2.4 million for the project from a federal
homeland security grant.
Evans said he would use the money to buy his department a new
radio system – the same as one currently used by the Michigan
State Police and Detroit Police – and to equip local police
agencies with compatible equipment. The switchover will, for the
first time, allow all law enforcement agencies in the county to
communicate on a common frequency, giving them an immediate ability
to coordinate their efforts during a disaster.
“Our current inability to communicate with each other on
one radio channel means we must rely on less efficient methods,
such as cell phones and pagers,” Evans said. “In a
post-September 11th world, that is not acceptable. This allocation
from the County Executive will allow us to fix that long-standing
problem.”
Once the Sheriff’s Office purchases the new radios, Ficano’s
homeland security department has agreed to equip all local police
agencies in the county with a device that will allow them to monitor
a countywide emergency response channel. Situations the frequency
may be used for include a plane crash, chemical spill, terrorist
attack or weather disaster, among others.
“The moment these agencies come online, every deputy, police
officer and state trooper in Wayne County will be speaking the
same language for the first time,” Evans said. “The
improvement this new inter-operability will bring to our county’s
emergency response cannot be overstated.”
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Radio “dead zones” a problem
Evans said joining the State’s system also would fix a critical
shortcoming of the county’s current radio system: communication
dead zones, where the devices often do not work.
In a recent test, the current radio system failed to receive or
transmit an adequate signal at 30 percent of the 653 locations
tested countywide. Failures occurred most often in the following
areas: Southwestern Wayne County, particularly Sumpter, Huron and
Van Buren Townships; portions of northwest Detroit and key areas
of downtown Detroit, including key government buildings, such as
the Wayne County Jail and Frank Murphy Hall of Justice.
When those same locations were tested using the State radio system
the county plans to adopt, Evans said, successful two-way communication
was achieved 98 percent of the time.
“These dead zones have been a huge frustration for years,
not just in Wayne County, but elsewhere around the nation,” Evans
said. “This new system will give us near perfect reliability.”
Lessons learned from 9-11
The inability to receive radio communications inside large structures,
for example, can have tragic consequences. When officials in
New York on September 11th attempted to tell firefighters to
evacuate the World Trade Center before the towers collapsed,
they were unsuccessful because their radios couldn’t reach
inside the solid structures.
“It was that incident that really forced law enforcement
agencies across the nation to rethink their communication systems,” Evans
said. “Thanks to this grant, Wayne County is taking a huge
step forward.”
Once the Sheriff’s Office receives the funds, Evans said
the new system could be in place within six months.
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