ALBANY COUNTY - A new radio system will allow police, firefighters, and emergency medical service personnel from around the region to communicate with one another.
"In the past, when we had multiple agency response, the agencies could not communicate with each other," said Albany County Sheriff James Campbell. Each agency had to radio back to its communications center, and someone there contacted other agencies, he explained. That method, he said, was "very time consuming."
"With the new system, agencies can all talk to one another," said Campbell. It connects 41 fire departments, 15 law-enforcement agencies, and 18 emergency medical service entities in Albany County, he said.
"When the towers went down," said Campbell, referring to the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001, "police couldn't talk to fire, fire couldn't talk to police."

The interoperability system also allows Albany County to communicate with municipalities in the neighboring counties of Rensselaer and Schenectady, said Campbell.
The $1.7 million system was funded through a Homeland Security grant. "I know we wouldn't have had the money to do it without the grant," said Campbell.

He said that he first looked into a countywide radio system in 2000. The county legislature appropriated $10,000 in 2002, so the sheriff's department could hire a consultant to study the feasibility of communications among county agencies, Campbell said.

In 2004, the county received a grant totaling nearly $2.5 million from the New York State Department of Criminal Justice Services for Urban Area Initiative Grant Program. An amount of $1.7 million was targeted for the new radio system, said Campbell.
"Homeland Security grants are all about improving communication," he said.
The new radio system is "definitely a benefit to public safety," said Campbell.
"It allows fire departments to all talk to each other on one frequency," he said. In the past, when multiple fire departments responded to a fire, there would often be several radios on the hood of a designated firetruck, he said.
The new system will be used for "emergency services only," said Sheriff Campbell. "There will be no idle chatter on it," he said.