Redding:
Area police radios can now be in sync

New equipment, recently awarded to the Redding Police Department through a federal grant, will now allow officers from different departments in the area to communicate with each other through their individuals radios when responding to the same  scene.

The device, called an Incident Commander’s Radio Interface, ICRI, interconnects municipal public safety radios, state and federal radios, and telephones in minutes. It is not for regional communication, but for a small topographical area, such as at an accident, or fire scene.

The grant was awarded to the Redding Police Department, in conjunction with agencies throughout the Housatonic Valley Region, through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Commercial Equipment Direct Assistance Program or CEDAP. Officers will receive training to use the system through the grant.

Multiple police agencies respond with different radio frequencies, Police Chief Douglas Fuchs explained, but this will allow police departments to lock-in to one another through their individual radios at a scene instead of having to tie radio frequencies together.

“CEDAP provides emergency response agencies with the equipment and technology they need to fulfill their homeland security mission,” a letter to Chief Fuchs read. “It is an important component of a larger, coordinated effort to strengthen our nation’s overall preparedness baseline.”

CEDAP’s primary focus, it continued, is to enhance regional response capabilities, mutual aid, and interoperable communities in jurisdictions ineligible to receive assistance under the Department of Homeland Security Urban Areas Security Initiative.

—RACHEL KIRKPATRICK
rkirkpatrick@thereddingpilot.com


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