State Issues Landmark Radio Comms Plan

The 13 largest state-level public safety agencies in California have completed a first-ever review of radio communications, and have issued a 70-page plan to eventually bring integrated voice and data services throughout the state. The 70-page plan focuses on technical issues such as narrowbanding and interoperability, but also consolidation, governance and the future. It lists the various agency systems and rates their capabilities—the corrections agency is in the “high-risk” category, while the Highway Patrol and Military Department are rated “good.” No agency is rated in the “ideal” category for communications. The report concludes that the best method of improving state-level public safety radio is to adopt a “system of systems” approach, which would feature a lower cost than other options, yet meet nearly all the goals. One of the many goals is to reduce the number of systems used by the state by, “increasing the collaboration between agencies and consolidating the disparate radio infrastructures.” Lastly, the plan sets a 10-year roadmap that begins with establishing improved governance and ending with deployment of shared radio systems. Download (pdf, 28 Mb) the entire plan here.