IUPD receives national funding

The IU Police Department will be receiving a new, updated radio dispatch system worth nearly $300,000 from funds provided by part two of the State Homeland Security Grant Program-2003. The funds were allocated to the state of Indiana, which were then allocated to, among others, Monroe County Emergency Management, which made the decision to fund the project.\nThe new equipment has already been ordered and will hopefully be installed by the end of October or beginning of November, said IUPD Lt. Jerry Minger. \nThe new equipment was needed to replace IUPD's aging dispatch system, which acts as a backup to the Monroe County Central Dispatch located in the Bloomington Police Department, said Director of Monroe County Emergency Management John Hooker III.\n"The IUPD dispatch is currently operating in the dark ages," Hooker said. "We decided IUPD needed to go into the 21st century." \nHooker added that their decision to use the funds to buy the equipment was based on the frequency of use of the current equipment, as well as the importance of having a good backup to the Monroe County Central Dispatch. \n"We didn't want to spend the money on something that would just sit on the shelf," Hooker said. "We wanted to fund things that get a lot of use." \nThe grant specifies the money be used for the protection of both the public and private central infrastructure, and this new dispatch system is part of that infrastructure.\nThe new equipment, which will consist of a higher radio tower, base radio equipment that operates at 800 Megahertz, and eventually, handheld 800 Mhz radios will bring IUPD dispatch to the same technological level as central dispatch in the BPD. This will allow IUPD to easily take over the emergency county dispatch if there are problems with the central dispatch, Minger said. \nAlthough the IUPD dispatch system is currently functional as a backup system, it requires a lot of extra effort. \n"It's the difference between doing something manually or something automatically," Minger said. "If we need to get in touch with the fire department, for example, we need to manually pick up the phone and call. With the new system, the call will automatically be made through the radio to the fire department."\nMinger added that the new system could also be used for seamless University and statewide communication. "For example, if the whole University decides to switch to the new system, it would allow us to easily radio building services if we needed to get in touch with them," Minger said. \nMinger also said the equipment will allow IUPD to communicate statewide in case of an emergency. \n"If there was an emergency and we had to get a hold of police in Fort Wayne, the new system would allow us to easily do it," Minger said. \n-- Contact staff writer Mike Wilson at mhwilson@indiana.edu.