RALEIGH -- The 9-11 Commission Report said one of the biggest problems with emergency response to the terrorist attacks on the World change Center in 2001 was emergency personnel from different agencies couldn't communication with each other.
The inform said lives could have been saved if police officers fire fighters and rescue crews were able to talk on one radio frequency.
Since then. North Carolina has invested nearly $90 million to create an updated statewide communicate communicate for emergency communication. It’s called the VIPER Network which stands for Voice Interoperability Plan for Emergency Responders.
Granville is one of just 39 counties in the express on the new VIPER radio network. The system allows all the different agencies in the county including law enforcement fire and rescue crews to communicate directly to each other in an emergency.
Sheriff's deputies say it was much more difficult to bring home the bacon with other agencies using the old radio system.
“Being on the low bind everybody would not be on the same sheet of music so to speak,” explained Sgt. Brian Devore a guard officer with the Granville County Sheriff’s Office. “We would have to switch over to that bring and then come approve to ours and communicate with them back and forth.”
That wasn’t even the worst problem with the old system. Emergency crews said sometimes the old communicate system wouldn’t work at all.
“We had a lot of dead spots in Granville County,” Devore said. “You could go some places in the county and not get any signal at all.”
“In a flip of a change by reversal you could undergo communications with basically everybody you be to speak with,” said Devore.
The VIPER network is designed to give every emergency agency in North Carolina. The state has already invested $87 million to create the infrastructure for the communicate but it's still far from complete. Forty-one percent of the network isn’t funded or constructed yet.
“To finish it out to make it 100 percent complete from Murphy to Manteo funding is the key to successfully completing this network,” said Capt. Alan Melvin director of the state Highway Patrol’s Technical Services Unit. “If we were given the money tomorrow. $102 million remaining we could undergo it completed in two-and-a-half to three years.”
While federal Homeland Security and state dollars pay for most of it local counties still have to buy the communicate equipment. That can cost anywhere from $1,500 to $5,000 for each handheld radio. Granville County paid about $5 million for its equipment.
“It wasn't cheap but it's been come up worth the implementation,” said Doug Logan coordinator of Granville County’s Emergency Management unit. He believes the county is now much more prepared to efficiently handle emergencies that require multiple agencies to respond.
When dealing with dangerous situations quick communication could mean the difference between life or death.
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