Subject: [NEXTEL-1] County law headed for Palmetto 800 system

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 19:27:30 -0500

2-20-2003

County law headed for Palmetto 800 system
By Kent Compton

Within a few months, all law enforcement agencies in Clarendon County will be
on the Palmetto 800 System. The new system will give the South Carolina
Highway Patrol, Clarendon County Sheriff’s Department and Manning,
Summerton, and Turbeville Police Departments better communication with each
other.

The Palmetto 800 System is designed to allow all public safety agencies to be
able to communicate with each other through one radio instead of having
numerous radios in their vehicles or having to carry them around. The radios will
be equipped with different frequencies from all agencies, as well as each
department having their own frequency, also know as a talk group. Clarendon
County Central Dispatch, at the communication center, will be able dispatch all
municipalities on the municipality channel and all municipalities will also be able
to communicate with other agencies if needed.

The system is part of the Federal Homeland Security System and was received
through grants from the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology
Center.

“There many different phases to the grants,” said Bob Roberts, Project Manager
for the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center. “Phase
one was to get the system in the 13 county sheriff’s departments in South
Carolina. Phase two was to get the system in local municipalities along I-95 and
five more counties.”

With the federal government warning about chemical warfare and fire
departments being more equipped than law enforcement to combat chemical
warfare, Roberts was asked why none of the fire departments received radios for
the new system.

“It all falls under funding,” Roberts said. “We do not have unlimited funding, we
are very limited, so we had to prioritize. Our studies show that 75 percent of radio
communications, of all the agencies, is done by law enforcement. In case we
need more law enforcement officers, for evacuations, the officers will be able to
go the area needed and they will be able to communicate with every officer there.
It’s not like we are not wanting the fire departments to get on the system, we do,
but until we get more funding, we had to see what was needed and where it was
needed first.”

Eventually the plan is for all agencies, local, state and federal, to be able to
communicate with each other nationwide.

Phase one of the Palmetto 800 System was to install the system in the
Clarendon County Sheriff’s Department.

“The handheld radios have a lot of advantages,” said Joe Bradham, Chief
Deputy for the Clarendon County Sheriff’s Department. “It’s very useful for long
distances. The problem we had before was the Walkie Talkie would just reach
outside the Manning area, unless there was a repeater. When everything is
completed, the new radios will reach from down at the lake to Turbeville.”

The reason Clarendon County was chosen in the phase one plan was because
Highway 521, one of the evacuation routes from the beach, goes through
Clarendon County.

“In case there is an evacuation from the Myrtle Beach area and an evacuation
from Charleston, the Charleston traffic could be sent up highway 52 and then
highway 521,” Bradham said. “If that happens, we might have a serious traffic
problem. We would already be receiving the traffic from Myrtle Beach and
Georgetown areas and the traffic could really start to back up. If traffic backs up,
we can contact Charleston directly and tell them to re-route the traffic another
way. On the old system we had, we would have had to contact three or four
different agencies to get in touch with them to reroute.”

Bradham said that the system would enhance the communication between all law
enforcement agencies.

“This equipment has allowed law enforcement to move years ahead with
communication,” Bradham said. “This will help out in so many ways.”

Manning, Turbeville and Summerton were all part of phase two of the grant
money.

“We really went on the system when the county went on the system,” Manning
Police Chief Randy Garrett said. “I believe, in the phase one grant, each
municipality was to receive two radios until all the municipalities went to phase
two. In the phase two grant, I believe Summerton received $14,000 and
Turbeville received $12,000 to purchase radios and we received $27,000 to
purchase 11 portable radios.”

Garrett ordered his department radios with two local talk groups.

“We ordered our radios with a tac-channel,” Garrett said. “The tac-channel is
basically for local communication. If an officer wants to notify his supervisor that
he is going to dinner, the officer would use the tac-channel so he would keep our
main channel free and open in case an officer needed help. We will have a roam
talk group, too. That way I can be anywhere in the state and talk to my
department. I could be in Greenville and it would sound like I was in town.”

Garrett also said he loves the idea of having a mutual aid channel where other
agencies from the state can be programmed into their own talk group.

“When we have the Bass Festival, Myrtle Beach Police comes up and helps us,
and when they have their bike week, we send some of our officers there,” Garrett
said. “Before, the officers coming up to the Bass Festival would have to pair up
with one of our officers that had a radio. Now the state coordinator is contacted
while they are in route to here. All they have to do is turn their radios on and
they’re programmed to our frequency. When they get here they have a radio on
our talk group and they can be talking with us.”

There was a problem with the phase one system where the dispatchers could not
dispatch the Manning Police Department.

“We received the word that we will receive the software and the radio to go into
the console at the communication center,” Garrett said. “The problem was, for
them to talk to us, the dispatcher would have to get up from the console and walk
over to the system and turn a knob to talk to us, then walk back to the console.
After communicating with us, they would have to walk back and turn the knob
back. When they get the software into the consoles, the problem will be solved.”

The Summerton Police Department is not completely on the Palmetto 800
System, but all their officers will be on the system soon.

“Hopefully our department will be on the system by next week,” Summerton
Police Chief Doug Riley said. “We will receive the Walkie Talkie units and they
will already be preprogrammed. We will have a talk group with the sheriff’s
department, Manning and Turbeville police departments, and the highway patrol
and we will have our own talk group.”

Riley also said that one of the radios would go to Fire Chief Bucky Brailsford in
case of an emergency.

“When we go to the new system,” Riley said, “we won’t be able to get in touch
with the fire department. We are going to give a radio to Bucky so we will be able
to get in touch with the fire department since they are not on the new system yet.”

Riley said after his police department switches over to the new system, the
radios from their old system would be given to the Summerton Fire Department.

“We have a repeater here in town and the fire department will be able to use it to
communicate better with each other,” Riley said. “They already have some of our
radios now, but after we get the 800 system we will not have any use for it
anymore, so we are going to give it to the fire department.”

Turbeville Police Chief Doyl Gray said his department, like Summerton, hopes to
be on the system soon.

“We have the radios the sheriff’s department has provided,” Gray said. “We have
not received ours yet, but they are on order. The grant we received will give us
three Walkie Talkies and we will have our own talk group, too.”

The radios that the Turbeville Police department received from the Sheriff’s
Department were having some problems.

“We don’t receive that good of a reception on the radios on the north end of the
county,” Gray said. “We are going to have a tower put in near Turbeville so be will
be able to fix that problem and have good communication, not only with
Clarendon County, but also Sumter County. We are going with the digital radios
because they get out so much better than analog. When we get the tower and the
digital radios in place, we should be set. Right now we don’t have good
reception, but hopefully we will be on the system soon.”

All four chiefs agree that this will enhance their departments’ communications
and they also will be able to help each other when an officer is in trouble.

http://www.clarendontoday.com/Pages/022003/News/county.html

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