The Kent County Sheriff’s Office received $2.8 million from the American Rescue Plan Act, known as ARPA, to implement the 800 MHz school safety radio network. The system is the first-of-its-kind to be used in Michigan.
“What we’ve known for years is that communication is always the most critical point of failure in any critical mass incident that’s occurred across the country.”
Bryan Muir is Kent County’s Undersheriff. He says the county had recently upgraded its radio system, so it made sense to take it a step further.
“Why don’t we install these base stations in every one of the schools, that way we can establish this direct two-way communication from any school suffering from a serious incident back into our dispatch center.”
Over 300 schools and 21 administrative offices are participating in the radio system, which will connect every K-12 school in Kent County directly to the county dispatch center. The radios are monitored by the dispatch center and school administrative staff. School staff can request immediate police assistance during emergencies, like an active school shooter, as well as provide dispatch a direct link to relay instructions to schools, such as lockdown orders.
Undersheriff Muir says they’re already looking at phase two of this system.
“Where we can start bringing in live video feeds from school cameras, from students 9-1-1 phone calls, different methods to make sure that we’re getting this critical real-time information which we’re seeing as a national trend and a global trend is resolving these critical incidents quicker with less injuries and loss of life.”
The radio network is currently operational and active in every school throughout Kent County
