Changes Made in Sebastian County Law Enforcement
A new countywide digital radio system, the Arkansas Wireless Information Network, is currently being installed in all law enforcement agency vehicles in Sebastian County, said Sebastian County Department of Emergency Management Deputy Coordinator Tonya Roberts last week, and mobile radios have been installed in all but 10 rural fire department vehicles.
Every deputy is happy with the system so far, and no "dead" spots have been found yet in the county, said Roberts. She expects that Emergency Medical Services will be cutover to the new system in the next few weeks.
Roberts says that all law enforcement officials from all Sebastian County agencies (excluding Fort Smith) have AWIN portable handled radios, including the Hartford, Central City, Bonanza, Greenwood, Huntington, Barling, Lavaca, Mansfield, Hackett, and Fort Chaffee police departments and the Sheriff's Department. The Sheriff's Department cutover, which began April 10, should be complete by Wednesday, April 23.
AWIN will allow the county's public safety agencies to operate collectively on the same system and to streamline interdepartmental communication. Roberts said that all law enforcement personnel are trained on the new system, which replaced a variety of old analog systems.
Dispatching and 911 operations were moved to the department's training room while renovations were made and new equipment was installed. Now, all law enforcement dispatching is being done on the new system.
County Judge David Hudson calls the AWIN system "a true interlocal govermental partnership" that connects the state and all of the cities in Sebastian County. County road vehicles also have these new radios, and Roberts believes that Fort Smith's changeover is imminent.
Classes have been scheduled to train rural firefighters and Road Department workers on the system. These updates were funded by a $541,854 grant awarded to the county in September.
In May 2006, Fort Smith voters approved a $12.3 million bond issue, financed by an extension of a 1 percent sales tax, to replace the city's 25-year-old, hard-to-maintain analog public safety radio network.
Roberts believes that the newly-recieved $315,732 Public Safety Interoperable Communications grant will allow the purchase of already-planned AWIN infrastructure, the replenishing of some of the 911 funds set aside for the system and will help cover buying some unforseen but necessary items.
