DAVENPORT, Iowa — Law enforcement, fire and emergency medical service agency scanners in Scott and Rock Island counties are going silent to the public.
The QC Area Public Safety Agencies is implementing the final pieces of a digital radio system. The QC P-25 Radio System is encrypted, which means those in the public who enjoy listening to scanner traffic will now no longer be able to.
Dave Donovan, the director of the Scott Emergency Communications Center and Scott County Emergency Management Agency, said the agencies have been working on this plan for two years. Police, fire and EMS agencies have been transitioning to the new system for the last six months.
"Everything is IP-based, everything is computer-based now. We're moving from an old system (that) was using 30-year-old technology," Donovan said. "The Federal Communications Commission is requiring bandwidth to be limited, and they continue to squeeze bandwidth and public safety's included in that. And so given the amount of radio traffic we have here, the only solution, really for us, was to move to a digital solution which uses less bandwidth."
He said it's being implemented primarily to protect personally identifiable information and personal health information.
"We're broadcasting information that might be part of the FBI's Crime Information Center, the National Crime Information Center, which is by law, we have to secure that information," Donovan said. "Do you want your name, address, driver's license and that personal information, or potentially your health information if you have EMS come to your address - do you want that out there for everyone to overhear? And I think that the answer to that is probably going to be no."
Donovan believes the QC P-25 Radio System will make interoperability between all agencies better. He said it's going to make it so all Rock Island and Scott county first responders will be able to communicate over the radio. Before it was just portions of the Quad City area.
"If we have a big event or a big disaster, it'll just be much easier for those organizations to speak and coordinate and talk together," he said.
The new system is also compatible with the Iowa State Interoperable Communications System and Starcom21, the Illinois State Radio System. The Quad City system is also part of the larger Shared Area Radio Agreement which includes Dubuque, Johnson, Linn, Buchanan, Blackhawk, Tama, Story, Polk, Mahaska, Washington, Iowa, Benton, Poweshiek, Marshall and Cedar counties in Iowa.
The new radio system was supposed to entirely roll out on Nov. 9, but Donovan said a technical glitch discovered Tuesday night is preventing some radios from being encrypted. Crews are trying to figure out why that encryption push-out failed for some radios. Donovan expects the rollout to be completed in a week to 10 days.
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