Alachua police to switch to digital radio system

ALACHUA – A new digital radio system to improve Alachua Police Department’s communication with other county departments was unanimously approved Monday by the Alachua commission.

Alachua is currently the only department in the county still using the old analogue system. This creates problems as the city department attempts to coordinate with the county and other city departments.

“Right now, we’re out there on an island,” said Alachua police Sergeant Carl Newsome, at the Monday meeting. “It takes a dispatcher to call another dispatcher to get to a supervisor to get to somebody to either get us help or get their guys help.”

The new system not only allows for better coordination with other departments, it also has a better back-up plan. The system has a series of fail-safes to keep communication going in case of interruption from a broken fiber optic cable or other problems.

“This will provide a much greater net of safety for our citizens,” said Newsome.

Two grants and an anonymous private donation of $100,000 will pay for the transition. The grants were both made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the federal stimulus package. Together the two grants amounted to about $150,000. An anonymous private donation of $100,000 brings the total funding for the project to about $250,000.

The equipment costs include paying for portable radios, chargers, mobile radios for vehicles, consoles for the communications control station and additional components.

This leaves about $60,000 surplus, which will department will use to cover the system’s monthly costs, which total about $3,000. The department expects this to increase the annual operational expenses by about $38,000, which will need to be accounted for by the commission in the budget.

The department expects to complete the transition by April.

The commission was quick to approve the spending for the new system.

“I think it’s imperative that we have the right equipment for our police officers to be able to talk to whoever they need to, to ensure their safety and the safety of the rest of the people that serve us and our citizens,” Commissioner Gary Hardacre said.