WHEATON -- DuPage County's police, fire, hospital and public works crews may soon have radios designated for communicating with any emergency department statewide.Illinois will provide DuPage County with one VHF radio, said Tom Mefferd, DuPage County Homeland Security and Emergency Management director. To outfit each chief's, deputy chief's and battalion chief's vehicle with the new radios, he plans to ask the County Board for 175 more.
"We have a lot more command vehicles than radios coming from the state," Mefferd told the county Finance Committee on Tuesday.
Mefferd's request also connects more workers than the state does. While the state wants every police, fire and emergency medical services station to have a new radio, the county wants to add public works crews to that list because it counts them among its emergency responders.
"In a tornado, police and fire can't come in until public works clears the roads," Mefferd said.
The county's current communications setup already allows multiple city, county and state agencies to talk during a major emergency -- and two of the new systems got recent tests.
DuPage County used its mobile communications hub for the first time at the four-alarm roof fire at Wheaton College's Billy Graham Center on June 8. The hub, a recreational vehicle that can roll onto the site of an emergency and open up to 15 more radio frequencies, connected the county's emergency management command center with the Wheaton police and fire departments and the Wheaton College administration and security departments.
"It's not uncommon for a police officer in Community A to have a problem when a police officer in Community B just across the border has no idea because they can't communicate," Mefferd said.
Finance Committee member William Maio, R-Itasca, wondered whether agencies get kicked off if channels get too crowded during an emergency. Mefferd said the command center can control which agencies to keep connected.
The county also tested its satellite- and Internet-based notification system for hospitals and law enforcement during the nationwide bioterrorism exercise staged in May 2003. The system went live Sunday with a printed message about the rise in the terrorism threat level for certain financial institutions on the East Coast.
Committee member Robert Schroeder, R-Naperville, asked if the lines of satellite communication are secure. Mefferd said the system is 98 percent "authenticated, verifiable and secure." Additionally, some radio channels that are not secure can be encrypted if necessary, he said.
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