The state will be spending $1 million on new communications equipment that will make it easier for emergency responders from different towns to talk with each other on their portable radios, Gov. M. Jodi Rell said Sunday.
The cross-band technology radio devices, which are expected to be in use across the state by September, will allow local police and fire officials to communicate even if they have different radio frequencies and systems.
A committee of the state Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security developed and implemented the new system, which is called the Connecticut state tactical on-scene channel system, or STOCS.
The system builds on a radio system that was put into service two years ago that allows every local police chief, fire chief and emergency management director to communicate with each other.
“Connecticut will be the first state in the nation to have this technology in place statewide,” Rell said in a statement. “Local officials should have this technology in place in time for this years hurricane season.”
The new equipment plugs into existing radios in emergency response officials’ vehicles, so towns do not have to buy new radio systems.
Rell announced in October that public alert radios would be provided to all public schools in the state. The radios alert school officials to weather-related disasters, terrorist threats, child abductions, hazardous material spills and other incidents.
Rell said requests for the new communications equipment will be evaluated on as as-needed basis.
