Luzerne County’s upgraded emergency radio communication system will be activated for Wilkes-Barre fire and police calls on Wednesday and then countywide the following week, said county 911 Executive Director Fred Rosencrans.
Wilkes-Barre was selected for the initial launch because it is the busiest municipality for police and emergency calls, Rosencrans said.
“We’re ready. I’m excited and looking forward to providing the best radio communication to agencies. It’s long overdue,” Rosencrans said.
The project includes additional communication towers in new locations, updated microwaves and the replacement of a 20-year-old analog radio system with a new digital one for emergency responders to exchange messages.
It promises to boost emergency radio coverage that is spotty or nonexistent in parts of the largely forested and mountainous 906-square-mile county, end radio interference and open up more radio channels for responders.
Motorola Solutions Inc. was awarded the radio system contract.
The county purchased more than $8 million in Motorola mobile and portable equipment for police and other emergency responders as part of the project. Mobile radios have been installed in vehicles, and the county is wrapping up distribution of remaining hand-held portable radios, Rosencrans said.
All schools in the county are receiving base-station mobile radios with a panic button, allowing school officials to instantly send a message if there is an emergency situation, he said.
Radio reception issues also have been addressed with enhanced digital radio communication equipment inside the county prison on Water Street in Wilkes-Barre, the Mohegan Sun Pocono casino in Plains Township and the Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre Township, Rosencrans said.
Motorola is contractually bound to blanket the county with 95% emergency radio coverage, 95% of the time, including remote areas and the ground floors of structures in both urban and suburban communities, he said. A 20-year support and maintenance agreement includes round-the-clock monitoring and assistance and two hardware/software “refreshes” after seven and 14 years to ensure it continues to meet needs.
“The vision is to keep it current into the next 20 years,” Rosencrans said.
County Manager Randy Robertson said the county will benefit from the seamless system that is “secure and more robust” and commended Rosencrans and his administrators for bringing the project to completion while dealing with vacancies at 911.
“This is an accomplishment getting close to 200 organizations talking on the same system. I think we all owe him a debt of gratitude,” Robertson said, referring to Rosencrans.
Council has not yet determined whether it will grant the administration’s request for $3 million of the county’s remaining $95.9 million in unallocated county American Rescue funding to further enhance the 911 communication project.
A $1.6 million feature would allow 911 center personnel to remotely connect to the more than 4,000 emergency radios in the field so they don’t have to physically hold them to complete software, firmware and other updates. This would ease the burden on 911 staff.
The other American Rescue request is for $1.4 million to add a feature that would transmit the GPS coordinates of responders, providing their current location when they communicate on the new system. Because it will improve responder safety, location identification was one of the most requested items when 911 held training and discussion sessions with outside agencies, officials said.
In the upcoming conversion to the new system, the county will be encrypting police channels for officer safety at the request of the Luzerne County Chiefs of Police Association, although fire and EMS channels won’t be encrypted, Rosencrans has said.
Anyone interested in listening to fire and EMS communications must purchase a digital scanner, he has said.