Video: Communication Reaches New Levels in Noxubee County

NOXUBEE COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Communication is reaching new levels in Noxubee County.

A grant is helping to pay for an upgraded radio system.

It allows law enforcement and first responders to have better communication while doing their jobs and it makes the county up to date with federal and state regulations.

When Noxubee County 911 Director Corey Brown took on his new role last year, better communication in the area was the goal.

Brown and supervisors worked together to get a $200,000 dollar grant to make the first major upgrade in over a decade.

“This system allows for much fast communication and allows for much more reliable and safer working environments for all of our responders, whether it be like law enforcement, fire, or medical.”

It also makes it possible for them to have signal in most of the county.

“With the new system, I’d say we’re about at 85 percent coverage, but to give us the coverage we need, we’re a long ways from getting a 100%.”

The old radios only covered half the county, causing cell phones to be used as backups.

“Before that, yeah we were flying were blind. We were dealing mostly with cell phones and there’s certain areas in Noxubee that even cell phones don’t reach, but it’s hard to try to dial and try to drive, or to be chasing and stop and try to dial, but on the radio, the only thing you have to do is hit that button and you can be talking while you’re running,” says Noxubee County Sheriff Terry Grassaree.

You can also talk to more than just your agency and on more than just one channel.

“We’re able to communicate with any agency, surrounding agencies, and we can go to one channel for every agency within the county to talk to each other,” says Brown.

That’s what Noxubee County Sheriff Terry Grassaree says is the best thing about it all.

“Let’s say the highway patrol comes through, if we’ve got a missing person, or if we’ve got a bad incident, no matter what, any state agency that come through, the only thing we have to do is channel up and change channel and then we can all communicate.”

Categories: Local News

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