Interesting they said it might take 2 or 3 years
LONGMONT — Even if the city is successful with two outstanding grant applications, a full upgrade of police and fire radios will likely take two to three years to complete.
Lynn Huff, interim manager of Longmont’s Emergency Communications Center, said the city will make emergency radios compatible with the state’s Digital Trunking System as part of a larger state and national effort to let police officers and firefighters communicate easily across jurisdictions.
“It will take two or three years to get this together, maybe longer,” Huff said. “It is going to cost a lot of money, most of it federal.”
He said the city is awaiting word on a state-administered North Central Region grant for $940,000 and a second grant application pending with the Colorado Department of Local Affairs for $175,000 to launch the upgrade.
The money would pay for the purchase and installation of a radio transmitter for the Longmont radio system that will link with the state’s digital trunking radio antenna system, according to a project description included with a grant application.
Radio incompatibility was cited as a major problem for the multijurisdictional response to the Columbine High School shootings in 1999. Responders to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks also had problems communicating.
Locally, Weld County deputies and Longmont police officers ran into communication problems in 2005 when a Longmont officer shot and killed 61-year-old Dianne Carlsten in the LongView Estates subdivision, which is in Weld County. Carlsten had a gun and was intoxicated. After the shooting, police officials acknowledged that radio problems complicated communication between Weld deputies and Longmont police on scene.
The radio upgrades are part of a federal push to standardize radio communications across jurisdictions.
In March, consultant Federal Engineering Inc. reviewed upgrade options and recommended to the Longmont City Council that the city pursue the digital trunking system, which will cost an estimated $5.9 million to fully purchase and install.
While Longmont is taking steps to upgrade radios, the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office has no immediate plans to change from the current VHF radios. Digital trunking radios have proven spotty in the mountains, where deputies do much of their work.
Cmdr. Jim Smith, division chief of support services for the sheriff’s office, said the county will have to come up with a method to communicate with outside agencies as larger departments like Longmont pursue the upgrade. He said that could mean some county patrol units will have to carry two radios.
