Using PAC-RT means adding expensive VRS hardware, and still doesn't solve the problem of not enough channels/talkgroups. Douglas county is stuck in 1989 with a single channel VHF repeater that has inadequate portable coverage. I can't count the times I've heard these folks in chases on foot not being able to get in when chasing some suspect. VHF just doesn't work well on portable radios, especially in a modern urban environment. The noise floor is sky high now thanks to all these part 15 devices' CPU clocks, cheap cell phone chargers, you name it. If you look at a spectrum analyzer you'd see how impractical it is to setup a radio system on this band in an urban area.
Douglas county is no longer "the sticks", it has a fast growing suburban population, no wonder Google decided to move a data center there. Cheap taxes, great location.
VHF trunking means getting pairs that play nice with combiners, not to mention the interoperability issue. It's just a crap band for portable radio coverage these days. And with interference growing from digital carriers on the band, getting performance down to -118dbm on RX is a difficult challenge. LTR is NOT designed for public safety and their current system is not even Passport capable, which lacks even APCO-16 features like emergency call, unit ID, remote radio disable, dynamic regrouping, etc. LTR is great for non-public safety, but a recipe for disaster for mission critical users.
They NEED a modern radio system with more voice channels, and more importantly in building body worn coverage. VHF is not the band for it, sorry. I know some will disagree with me, but this isn't 1985 and Douglas is not a rural area. It's time to move forward.
The WARRS system has sites in the county, one or two additional sites would probably be needed to expand the network, or moving to the Cobb DTRS (which absorbed the old Douglasville analog system BTW) would be a prudent move. This would give them much needed portable coverage, more channel/talkgroup capacity, and they would be on a modern radio system with public safety grade feature sets, not some SMR type network designed for the garbage man.
They need to make public safety a priority and stop playing games with the budget, but then this IS Gawga we are talking about, we lead the nation in corruption and Douglas county has been in the news quite a bit in this regard...no surprise there.