New system to bolster inter-agency cooperation

POCATELLO - A new system allowing Bannock County emergency responders to communicate directly via a common radio frequency has taken longer than expected to install.

Already running behind the scheduled summer startup, a shipment of equipment bound for Pocatello was re-routed to Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and workers had to wait for the weather to break to install receptors on antennae on nearby mountain tops.

“There's been a lot of different delays - it's just circumstances,” said Capt. Mike Sanders of the Bannock County Sheriff's Office.

But after working on the project for five years, Sanders and other law enforcement officials said the cutting-edge radio system should be operational by spring 2006, putting the Gate City and surrounding communities at an envious advantage.

“We're one of the first cities that have implemented (this),” said Division Chief Dave Gates of the Pocatello Fire Department. “Right now I have a radio in my rig, but I have to be in there to talk to police.”

Made possible by federal grants, the 700-megahertz radio system will digitally tap into a $2.5 million master computer center in Meridian and will let public safety officials communicate directly with each other when responding to a natural disaster or high-speed pursuit.

Other Idaho counties - including Bingham and Power counties - are expected to follow suit in an effort to connect the entire country's law enforcement on the same bandwidth.

“A lot of legislators are lamenting the fact New York City is no further along than they were four years ago when Sept. 11 happened,” Sanders said. “This is the type of system they want them to have.”