Emergency paging system goes online
System to help first responders
TROY, N. Y. » First responders working in Rensselaer County will now be able to use a new paging system to help them perform their duties.
Deputy County Executive and Chairman of the county’s Public Safety Communications Enhancement Design Committee Chris Meyer recently announced the county’s new Home Alerting System purchased from Motorola is now operational.
The system operates on the county’s 10 emergency communications towers established as part of the total communications systems updates. The new system utilizes “high band” technology, which replaces the current system utilizing “low band” technology that is more susceptible to interference fromother devices and therefore has become obsolete.
“The county is making an extensive investment into our countywide emergency communications systems and it is very exciting to have this particular system go live that will help ensure a speedy and appropriate notification to our first responders,” Meyer said in a recent news release.
The Home Alerting System will be used to notify all first responders of an incident in their community. The infrastructure of the system was purchased and installed by the county at a cost of approximately $ 700,000. The pagers used by all first responders were purchased using grant funding in the amount of approximately $ 750,000 secured by state Sen. Kathy Marchione.
“In an emergency, every second counts; a faster response can result in lives saved and destruction prevented. To support this important effort, I secured $ 750,000 in state funding as part of the 201617 state budget to provide new emergency pagers for Rensselaer County first responders,” said Marchione — R,C, I, Reform-Halfmoon. “The new pagers will enhance response times, coordination, communication and assist Rensselaer County’s courageous first responders in doing what they do best: saving lives and protecting public safety. I was pleased to partner with Rensselaer County, who made vital communication infrastructure investments to help make this project a reality to better serve and protect Rensselaer County families.”
Over the last four years, county officials have been replacing nearly all of the emergency communications systems including a new radio system, home alerting system, emergency 911 phone system, computer aided dispatch system as well as building additional communications tower sites and upgrading the dispatch center.
As part of the overall projects, the county established a fully functional backup of all systems at the State Police Troop G Comsec. The overall costs of the enhanced systems upgrades are expected to be approximately $ 21 million.
“When completed these systems will provide our first responders in police, fire, and ambulance services the communication tools they need when responding to an incident, which is crucial to a positive outcome for the person or people in need of assistance,” said Meyer. “Additionally, these upgrades of our communications center will better enable our dispatchers to help those seeking assistance.”
The next system to be brought online is the radio system, which is currently being tested to ensure it meets its performance expectations. The radio system is expected to go live in October. Now that the Home Alerting system is operational, Bureau of Public Safety staff will be visiting each department to program the recently purchased pagers in order to complete the system implementation.
“These various projects will serve our first responders and our residents extremely well for years to come and I want to commend my Deputy County Executive Chris Meyer and the members of the radio committee and communications design committee for their efforts to make these necessary upgrades a reality. I also want to thank Senator Marchione for her successful effort to find the money to pay for the pagers for all of our volunteer agencies,” Rensselaer County Executive Kathleen Jimino in the news release.