Ribbon cutting for new public safety radio system

St Johns County hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony today, and Historic City News was in attendance for the unveiling of the new county-wide 800 MHz public safety radio system.

The event was attended by more than 85 participants and featured several speakers, a multi-agency interoperability demonstration, and facility tours of the new system.

The speaking agenda included Jay Morris, St Johns County Board of County Commissioners Chair, Carl Shank, St Johns County Fire Rescue Chief, David Shoar, St Johns County Sheriff, and Marshall Wright, Motorola Vice President and Director of Sales.

A roll-call test started with an alert tone and then you heard, “All agencies stand by for roll call of regional assets”.

The following agencies responded:

St Johns County Sheriff’s Office- County Unified 1
St Johns County Fire Rescue- County Unified 1
St Augustine Police Dept.- County Unified 1
St Augustine Fire Dept. – C9- County Unified 1
St Augustine Beach Police Dept.- C6-County Unified 1
St Augustine Airport Control Tower- C9- County Unified 1
Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office- SJC 1/ A patch
Jacksonville lle Fire Rescue- SJC 1/ A patch
Jacksonville Beach Police Dept.- A9- SAFD/SAPD Tach
Jacksonville Beach Fire Dept.- A9- SAFD/SAPD Tach
Flagler County EOC-8TAC92
Clay County Sheriff’s Office – 8TAC92
Clay County Fire Rescue- 8TAC92
Putnam County Sheriff’s Office- 8TAC92
National Park Service- Special Event 6
St Johns County Public Works- County Unified 1
COSA Public Works- County Unified 1
Florida Forestry Service- 8TAC92

If officers responding to a call from the St Augustine Beach Police Department are receiving assistance from the City of St Augustine, and St Johns County, all are able to communicate with each other. During weather emergencies; Forestry Service, Firefighters, law enforcement, emergency medical, and public works can better carry out their potentially life-saving assignments — because, whether in their vehicles or on foot, they now have the communications they need from even remote parts of the county.

Photo credits: © 2013 Historic City News staff photographer