New Emergency Radio System Upgrades Will Help Improve Communication

Putnam County Sheriff’s Department expects about another year until its new emergency radio communications system will be complete.

Sheriff Eddie Farris said Putnam County will have five sites for the transmitter locations. He said three sites are already in good shape, one site needs upgrades, and the state will find and purchase land for the final site.

Farris said the state has worked with Motorola to do engineering and mapping for the five sites.

“To make sure that the radios will work in all the spots and in order for it to work sufficiently, we’re going to have to have two more towers,” Farris said. “So we’re in the process of upgrading the one tower, which the county will do. And then the other tower, the state of Tennessee is actually going to pay for that tower and erect it.”

Farris said the Sheriff’s Department recently received some $2 million in grant funds to actually purchase the mobile radios themselves. He said that will cover all new radios for his department as well as officers with the Monterey and Baxter Police Departments. Cookeville and Algood Police Departments also received a joint grant to purchase their own.

Farris said the P-25 radios system upgrade is part of a statewide initiative to improve emergency communications. He said Putnam County serves as the focus for the Upper Cumberland region.

“Law enforcement and other offices and state departments went to this system across the state several years ago and it meant to be filtered on down to the local level and it has been, but very few counties can actually afford the system it’s very expensive,” Farris said. “But basically it makes to where everyone can talk across the state and talk to each other, which as we all know is very important.”