Hinsdale Police and Fire Departments to Get Free Radio Equipment Upgrade

Police and firefighters in Hinsdale soon will have new radio equipment that will help them communicate more effectively with each other and agencies outside the community.

In what Village President Tom Cauley termed a “no-brainer,“ the Hinsdale Village Board last week gave its approval to participation in the DuPage County public safety interoperable communications system. The initial $328,000 cost of the equipment is being paid for by the DuPage County Emergency Telephone Service Board (ETSB).

Cauley provided an example of the type of situation that presently exists that the new equipment will help alleviate.

“If a police officer is pursuing a suspect that goes from Hinsdale to Oak Brook, the two police departments may not be able to communicate,” he said.

Police Chief Bradley Bloom said it looked like communities in DuPage County were “100 percent on-board,” in participating in the new network, called StarCom21.

“We’re excited about it,” Bloom said. “We think this is a real step in the right direction. Ultimately, this is going to save us a lot of money.”

Under the agreement, the ETSB will provide the equipment and pay for maintenance for seven years. If funding is available, the ETSB may continue to pay for the system after the seven years have ended. If not, the cost for Hinsdale to remain on the system will be $35 per user per month, for an annual total of $23,520.

Hinsdale Fire Chief Michael Kelly also expressed his enthusiastic support for the new system. In a telephone interview Monday, Kelly noted that any costs to the department would be costs that would have been incurred anyway with the old system.

“It also allows us to have the ability to communicate back-and-forth with our police department,” Kelly said. “Right now, we don’t have that ability, unless the police department switches to another frequency and the fire department switches to another frequency.”

Connection to 9-11

The inability of police and fire personnel to communicate with one another hampered emergency response efforts during the Sept. 11, 2011 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York Center, according to the 9-11 Commission. Since then, there has been a drive to improve communications between agencies.

In 2007, the Illinois State Police switched to the StarCom21 system, which is owned by Schaumburg-based Motorola Solutions. A number of other state and county agencies in Illinois also use the system.

Kelly said the original plan in DuPage County was for police departments to go on the network this year and fire departments in 2012, but it now appears the conversion may be done simultaneously.

“Sometime this year agencies will start going up on the network,” he said.

Kelly said any incidental costs to the department for participating in StarCom21 will be “fairly minimal.” So far, the village has approved the expenditure of $17,920 for accessories, such as rack chargers, microphones, and mobile radios.