SUISUN CITY — Thanks to a combination of grant funding sources, including the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Suisun City Police Department recently joined the Fairfield-Vacaville 800 Mhz trunked radio system enabling instant interoperability between public safety agencies in the three cities.

The new system also will provide a major overhaul and upgrade to the Fire Department radio system. The result will be that Suisun City’s emergency responders will be able to communicate much more effectively.

Despite being adjacent to each other and regularly having incidents cross city boundaries, the previous radio system did not allow public safety agencies in the two cities to communicate directly.

Officers relied upon a dispatcher establishing phone contact with Fairfield and then relay¬ing information back and forth. In a critical situation, this is too time-consuming.

The prior system was nearly 20 years old, and would have eventually required a complete overhaul. Rather than plan an overhaul, Suisun City partnered with the City of Vacaville and the City of Fairfield to join their system. The 800 Mhz system provides significantly more coverage, capacity and interoperability than any stand-alone system could have provided.

As part of the new system, Suisun City Police Department outfitted all its police cars and personnel with the 800 Mhz radios. With the new radios, an officer can communicate with any other agency with a simple turn of the dial. Additionally, personnel can communicate with non-800 Mhz users by having dispatch connect them into virtually any other radio channel in the County.
The improvements also will provide the Fire Department with enhanced radio reception across the City, upgraded transmitters and handheld and mobile radios, including the abil¬ity to communicate with other agencies using 800 Mhz systems.

“The new system will increase the safety of our first-responders and the community by providing a reliable, interoperable communications platform capable of being upgraded to emerging standards,” said Sgt. Andrew White of the Suisun City Police Department.

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