Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Police, emergency workers to test new radio linkup

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2003 17:26:36 -0500

Posted on Tue, Feb. 04, 2003
Police, emergency workers to test new radio linkup
FEDERAL MONEY FUNDS IMPROVED SYSTEM
SOUTH-CENTRAL KENTUCKY BUREAU

SOMERSET - When state, city and county law officers, firefighters and paramedics rush to
an emergency in rural Kentucky, they can't talk to each other directly by radio and share
information.

That could change someday.

Fifth District U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers yesterday announced he has gotten $10 million in
federal money set aside so the Kentucky State Police and Kentucky Division of Vehicle
Enforcement can test a high-tech system under which police and emergency workers in the
field could communicate directly, even across a variety of radio channels.

"One of the biggest challenges we face in protecting our people is the inability of law
enforcement and other public-safety officers to communicate and share information," Rogers
said.

The program will operate first in 42 counties in southern and Eastern Kentucky. State
police would like to establish such a system statewide.

Police who took part in a news conference yesterday with Rogers at the Center for Rural
Development in Somerset said melding communications for police and emergency responders
could save time and lives.

Police could spread the description of a fleeing criminal more quickly, for instance, or
share information about dangerous chemicals with everyone headed to the scene of a tanker
fire.
"This will make us much more efficient police officers," said state police Maj. Rob
Wil-liams.

Rogers, R-Somerset, said the program is the only one of its kind in rural America.
The program would build on a $22.5 million initiative Rogers created earlier. That Law
Enforcement Technology program has brought computers and other equipment to 110 city and
county police forces in the rural-development center's 42-county area.

That includes 500 computers in police cruisers. Several officers said during yesterday's
news conference that the computers mean better communication and record-keeping and
increased efficiency, allowing them to do their own license checks, for instance.
Harlan Police Chief Danny Caudill said an officer in his department used a computer in his
cruiser to catch a man wanted on a rape charge in Virginia.

The officer was able to do a check for warrants, based on the vehicle license plate, and
get the information in seconds. Before, he would have called a dispatcher, who would have
called the state police to do a license check, and then relayed the information back to
the officer, which could have taken up to 10 minutes, Caudill said

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/news/local/5099609.htm
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