Jeffco sheriff gets $500,000 for communication upgrades

[dave911]

Jeffco sheriff gets $500,000 for communication upgrades
Posted by Birmingham News staff August 13, 2007 12:29 PM

U.S. Rep. Artur Davis presented a $500,000 check to the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office today to use for communications upgrades that will allow the department to better communicate with other area police agencies.

Davis, D-Birmingham, said the funding will provide interagency data sharing with 26 police departments in Jefferson County, as well as agencies in five surrounding counties. Information could be shared between officers and agencies through the patrol car laptop computers and cell phones, rather than hard-copy faxes.

Sheriff Mike Hale said the Alabama delegation has now appropriated $2 million for the program since 2006. Hale said he would like to see the program up and running within a year.

[EMS-1]

You could buy some hellacious office chairs with that! LOL.

[KD4NII]

I wonder if Birmingham PD will get the advanced MDT/CAD features the county has?

[SAR2401]

Dunno but I hope all those other agencies don't need too many MDC's. Half a mill will buy about 60 to 70 MDC's after the overhead, programming, software, and installation is paid for. Of course, that's not counting the inevitable rake-off for a little graft here and there. I'm basing this on the MDC install that was done at our S.O. in California five years ago so those numbers may be a little optimistic. We also already had the antennas in place on our towers since this was an upgrade to a previous system. If they have to install more antennas or, even worse, towers, I think they'll end up with about 10 Windows XP laptops whose primary use will be playing solitaire.

It's amazing how little 500 grand buys nowadays.

[KD4NII]

I know most BHM PD cars have computers, but I think they only use them for checking plates, warrants, ect. Jefferson County Sheriff units seem to be able to use them for
two way messaging with dispatch and other units.
Seems like it's just a matter of upgrading what they have.

[dave911]

I wonder if it's that they can't or don't want to. I know BFRS can. When I rode with Engine 1, they sent an instant message to Truck 1. Matter of fact, the shift I rode with used the computer for everything... en route, on scene, in service, etc. They didn't use the radio unless they were out of the engine.

[KD4NII]

Thanks Dave, I didn't know BFRS even had them! I did read something somewhere
about BFRS using a Southern-LINC based GPS/AVL system, wonder if they use the
LINC for data?
I know there are a couple of dedicated data channels on the SmartZone system (not talking about control channels) and I have picked up what sounds like data bursts on the old BHMPD UHF repeater input channels plus one that USED to be the downtown library security repeater (453.6750/458.6750)?

[BHAMDISPATCHER]

BPD does not have the I/Cad (Intergraph Computer Aided Dispatch) programs installed on the MDT's yet.
Its coming and then we will be able to do as the county does with dispatching and messaging. Just as with everything else in the city, nothing moves fast.

We can send messages to the units now, via our antiquated mainframe but its use is few and far between.