Jan. 20--EFFINGHAM -- Police within Effingham County can communicate with one another just fine -- as long as they are in their squad car.
But Effingham County Chief Deputy John Loy told a County Board committee Thursday that his deputies still can't communicate by radio with city or state police once they get out of the car and are using mobile radios.
"It's a sad situation," said Loy at Thursday's meeting of the board's Public Safety Committee of the Whole. "The problem is we can't communicate at the scene (of an incident).
"We can't listen to them and they can't listen to us."
The problem, he said, is that county deputies use a high-band radio system that leaves deputies unable to communicate at times with both Illinois State Police and Effingham city police. The ISP and the city both use the new Starcom system.
But Loy said it would cost the county between $250,000 and $300,000 to implement Starcom, between radio purchases and user fees. And, he said a department that has had to cut its budget repeatedly over the past several years just can't stomach an expense of that magnitude.
"The county cannot afford either the user service fees or the equipment needed to facilitate Starcom," he said.
Loy said his department is working toward radio interoperability, but he said it's not going to be easy.
"We're working toward it. It's not a quick fix," he said. "The bottom line is that our officers work well with the city.
"We just need to be able to talk outside the car."
Loy said the problem is not Starcom itself, but how the State of Illinois implemented it.
"Starcom was a good idea in its inception and Missouri makes it work," he said. "But the State of Illinois tried to rush it before the technology was completely ready.
"It's just not in the best interest of the people of this county at this point," Loy said. "I don't want to throw money at it unless we can solve the problem."
Bill Grimes can be reached at 217-347-7151, ext. 132, or at [email protected].
Copyright 2012 - Effingham Daily News, Ill.
