Updated equipment helps dispatchers communicate

By Jessica Coleman
Staff Writer
After three years of working with the Commissioners Court of Jackson County, Motorola, and grant resources, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office is purchasing new dispatch consoles which will enable them to more easily communicate with other counties.
Jackson County only has one Public Safety answering point for the entire county. Police, EMS, all county fire departments, and all law enforcement in Jackson County use Sheriff’s Office dispatchers to easily communicate with emergency services inside Jackson County and enable seamless communications with surrounding counties.
Jackson County Sheriff Andy Louderback said this type of equipment has a life of about 10 years, and the current consoles are 11 years old.
“We handle thousands of calls each year,” said Louderback, “All of our dispatch services go through our consoles, and all of our radio communications are tied to our tower.”
The four-year-old tower is compatible with the current equipment, but the new consoles will give dispatchers the ability to speak to other agencies outside the county more easily.
Counties like Calhoun, DeWitt, and Lavaca counties are on Very High Frequency radio. As VHF-only counties, their radios cannot communicate with, for example, Victoria, Matagorda, and Wharton Counties, who are on 800 megahertz systems. Jackson County has, for four years now, been what Louderback calls a “multiband capable” county, meaning dispatchers here can use both frequencies, enabling them to communicate with all surrounding counties.
The new equipment will allow them to do so more efficiently.
The consoles were largely paid for with grant money.