Jasper County Sheriff's Office transitioning to digital radios - KOAM TV 7

Jasper County Sheriff's Office transitioning to digital radios

The Jasper County Sheriff's Office is changing the way it communicates and is encouraging other agencies in the county to do the same.

Jasper County Sheriff Randee Kaiser has bought 135 digital radios for his department.  He says if all area agencies switch from analog to digital, they could communicate on the same frequency.

Plus, by going digital throughout the county Sheriff Kaiser says there will only have to be four radio towers instead of 20, which will save smaller jurisdictions the cost of maintaining them.

Kaiser says most jurisdictions, including the Dueneweg Fire Department, are on board to go digital.  But some agencies do not yet have the funding to buy the equipment.

Kaiser says those unable to make the switch when the county does will not present any problems.

"They will still be on a system that can communicate with us because they are dual channel type of radios, but it's just going to be they won't have the abilities to communicate like everybody in digital is able to."