Several months ago when the Metro Safe Plan was announced you could hear the groans from all over Jefferson County from Police, Firefighters and EMS Personnel. Two years into Metro Government Merger and they announced that they were still two years away from implementation.
Please donâ?'t get me wrong. Metro Safe will be the â??Mac Daddyâ? of emergency response systems when it is all said and done. The problem is for the Police Department, is the system we have isnâ?'t cutting it anymore. The problem was highlighted on February 8th when gunman Joshua Rucker opened fire on Metro Police Officers Todd Hale and George Rodman. Officers responding to the scene from the nearby 4th Division were unable to communicate with Officers on scene from the 6th Division. Chaos ensued as Officers raced to the scene to help.
Previous problems with the radio system and the incompatibility between former County Police and former City Police radio systems have been encountered.
Thank goodness a fix may be just around the corner. Metro Government is addressing the â??NOWâ? problem by spending 7 million dollars on a temporary system that will patch the two systems together. The money spent on this will not be wasted. The system will be used as a back-up once the new Metro Safe System comes online in 2007.
For now, Officers are relieved to know that in the near future true communication between all Police Districts will become a reality for the first time since the two Departments merged in 2003.