Rockwall County Sheriff Harold Eavenson said they had known there were dead spots in the radio connection in several places within the county for several years. But when a tornado struck on April 3, 2012, in the southeastern part of the county, Eavenson said they came to realize just how bad the radio connection had become.
“The handheld radios were useless,” Eavenson said. “We couldn’t talk at all. We knew it was not good in that part of the county, but it was even worse under those circumstances than what we thought it was. Even our mobile units had difficulties — still have difficulties.”
Eavenson said he frequently hears stories from his deputies or on his car radio of deputies trying to radio and the communications operator not being able to understand, leading the operator to ask whoever is radioing in to change locations or repeat what they said. The reason, Eaveson said, is because there are so may radios on the same frequency that has been used for years.
“It’s basically radio overload,” he said.
County Judge David Sweet also remembered the day of the tornado. At the time he was serving as mayor of Rockwall. When the tornado struck, Sweet and the city manager at the time, Rick Crowley —who also happened to be new — headed over to the Emergency Operation Command. The Rockwall police chief was out of town so they were working with his staff, and Sweet said he was listening to the dispatch and heard all of the confusion Eavenson was talking about.
“We are also fortunate that day that while there was some damage in a certain portion of the county, that it wasn’t worse than it was, “ Sweet said. “But it was a glimpse as far as some of the lack of communication that we had at the time.”
After the tornado, discussions began regarding the situation and the safety hazard it presented to not only law enforcement officers, but to the community as well.
“This is a project that is in the best interest, from a public head safety perspective, of every law enforcement individual in this county,” said County Judge David Sweet. “Not only law enforcement, but every resident in Rockwall County benefits from this.”
Eavenson said that if a law enforcement officer is responding to a call and the radio isn’t clear, it could delay the officer from reaching the person who called because they are trying to get the right information.
“It could help out a citizen’s life in jeopardy,” Eavenson said.
The project began with Eavenson identifying the need to the Commissioners Court. Former County Judge Jerry Hogan took it on and Sweet continued working on the project. But Commissioner Dennis Bailey was active in the project from the very beginning.
“It’s so important as you see some of these tragic events that have happened around us, you see some of the coordination that goes on between multi-departments,” Bailey said. “We would not have that capability if we were not moving to this type of a system and that’s just — that’s not acceptable in our community.”
Bailey said he thought the new radios were an easy sell due to the benefits they would provide, both in regard to safety and finance.
“It was an easy sell, I think, to the court that we all have the same tax payers — whether it’s county or city — and it would be a great opportunity for us to use some synergies, use our monies wisely, in order to put them under one system.”
The process has been long. The county employed the help of a consulting firm — Black and Veatch — to help with the process and with choosing a vendor.
“I think they helped us up to this point through a set of minefields, if you will, and I think they’ll help us before we step off into any minefields into the future,” Sweet said.
The chosen vendor met or exceeded every guideline put forth by Black and Veatch. But the real excitement, Eavenson said, was the responses from the first responders. A perk of bringing the five municipalities into the project was that they got be part of the evaluations and could see the equipment they would be working with.
“It was quite amazing to us that all of the first responders — whether it was sheriff, police or fire — all came away with the same evaluation and agreed upon the same vendor,” Eavenson said. “So that was very exciting for us to know that every one had chosen pretty much the same type of equipment that could meet their needs.”
The Project is called Project 25 and is a Phase Two. It’s a simulcast system — which means that it can it can reverse itself as needed. The project will include the addition of two towers — bringing the current three towers up to a count of five— and a total of 748 radios. One of the new towers will be built in Royse City and the other will be built in the McLendon-Chisholm area with the intent of spreading communication operability and ridding the county of as many “dead spots” as possible.
The major advantage of the system will be the interoperability it will provide.
“For the first time in the history of Rockwall County, the first responders will be able to talk to each other,” Eavenson said.
Eavenson said if the Rockwall Police Department or Heath was involved in a pursuit, the other agencies will know they were in a pursuit. They will know where they are and where they are going, and that communication, he said, is important.
The county did face challenges on the project. They had to convince the cities of the magnitude of the problem, but they also had to have patience.
“Getting everyone to understand the importance was really not all that difficult. Working out how we get there is what took so long,” Bailey said.
Construction on the towers will begin in the third quarter of 2016 — between July and September. The radio equipment will be tested in Lynchburg, Va. to ensure its quality before being shipped to the county.
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©2015 the Rockwall County Herald-Banner (Greenville, Texas)
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