Pa. County Emergency System Upgrades Expected to be Done by End of Week

Nov. 03--The long-awaited upgrade to Berks County's emergency communications system is scheduled to be fully operational by the end of this week, which should be good news for first responders who have long complained about dead zones where their radios were useless.

For the first time in their careers, for example, Northern Berks Regional police officers will be able to talk to the county communications center on their hand-held radios from Maidencreek Township, among other area in the department's coverage area, according to their chief, Scott W. Eaken.

But those not in uniform who enjoy eavesdropping on Berks 9-1-1 dispatches for fires, crashes and other emergencies on consumer scanners will find they are out of the loop.

Besides the main change -- switching from analogue to digital signal -- most home scanners simply won't be able to handle the new broadcast signal that transmits data at 700 megahertz, said Carl E. Geffken, chief county operations manager.

Even if they upgrade their equipment, people with home scanners will no longer hear the police channels. Communications between police officers and between police and the emergency dispatchers will be encrypted so the channels are blocked to the general public including the media, Geffken said.

The Reading Police Department, which has its own dispatch center for police calls, has been blocking its channels for years using encryption.

Geffken said county law enforcement officials indicated their preference that law-enforcement traffic be encrypted for the safety of officers because broadcasts often gave away sensitive information such as the location of officers.

"We always want our police officers to be safe," Geffken said.

Eaken, who is president of the Berks County Chiefs of Police Association, said most departments use the media to inform the public of crimes such as burglaries occurring in their area, so the public won't be kept in the dark as a result of the change.

On the other hand, "When we respond to a crime like a burglary in progress, we don't want anyone to hear that because bad guys are listening, too," he said.

The media and others that make a habit of monitoring emergency communications will still find out about most major incidents by way of scanner traffic, Eaken said, because fire and ambulance crews are typically dispatched along with police for murders, shooting, gas leaks and rescues.

To keep apprised of crime in their areas, he urged the public, media included, to make better use of Crimemapping.com

Every police department in the county feeds data into the interactive national website. Users can subscribe for email alerts to receive a simple report including the nature of the crime and where it occurred within a designated radius from their home or business.

"Although it's nice that people can keep very current about what's going on by listening to fire and EMS (emergency medical service)," Geffken said, "the next morning they can log in to Crimemapping.com and see every major incident that occurred in their area."

Geffken said Berks, unlike some surrounding counties, decided to build an entirely new emergency communications system rather than add to a system that was really a patchwork of antiquated systems.

The more than $60 million project will make it possible for all firefighters, emergency medical crews, police officers, public works employees, fire police members and coroners in the county to communicate directly with each other.

All first responders, many of them volunteers, had to get new radios. The county reimbursed 20 percent of the costs, Geffken said.

Eaken said the new system makes if possible for him to communicate, if needed, with a volunteer firefighter, a park ranger or Reading police officer.

"I'm going to be able to talk to the City of Reading," he said. "Never in my career have I been able to talk to city police."

Contact Steven Henshaw: 610-371-5028 or shenshaw@readingeagle.com.

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