Tiverton Police receive federal funds to upgrade 'antiquated' communications equipment

TIVERTON — The police department, fire department, and department of public works will all benefit from a $500,000 earmark of federal funds to replace the emergency call center’s dispatch console.

The earmark was jointly secured by Sen. Jack Reed, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Rep. David Cicilline. This type of funding is called “congressionally directed spending” in the senate, and “community project funding” in the House.

The $500,000 secured by Tiverton’s elected members of congress will be matched by a further $1.7 million in ARPA funds already approved by the Tiverton town council. The total $2.2 million being used to renovate and upgrade the call center and other elements of the police station is all federal funding and will come at no additional cost to Tiverton taxpayers.

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On Wednesday, all three legislators joined Police Chief Patrick Jones and Town Administrator Chris Cotta to tour the Tiverton Police Station, see the current communications system and station to understand the impact of the earmark, and meet with officers and dispatchers.

The town’s current communications system is nearing the end of its life cycle and will be replaced with state-of-the-art equipment to better support the emergency communications needs of the police and fire departments.

According to the Tiverton Police Department, installation of the new equipment is expected to begin shortly and completed by the end of this year.

Replacement of 'antiquated' equipment will allow departments to coordinate more efficiently

The new system will be utilized by Tiverton police, fire, and EMS, and will also integrate Tiverton’s Department of Public Works so that responses to natural disasters and winter storms can be more efficiently coordinated. In addition to the dispatch console replacement, this funding will also allow every police officer and firefighter in Tiverton to carry a portable radio.

Cotta told the Daily News the renovations were sorely needed, explaining the station, which now sees 65 come and go on a daily basis, had been built in the 1970s for only 12 officers. He said the fire department had not received a communications technology upgrade since the late 1990s, and the police communications system had last been upgraded in 2004 with used equipment inherited from the city of North Providence.

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Coordinating with Massachusetts and other fire departments

“We will now have a reliable communications system, it’ll be modern…the police department runs on the 800 MHz system the state police have, but the fire department has to run on 400 MHz,” explained Cotta.

He said the town will now be able to operate on a “blended system” which allows them to coordinate with Massachusetts fire departments including Fall River, Westport, Assonet and Berkeley which use 400 MHz systems and can’t communicate on the 800MHz system.

He further explained the blended system would allow Tiverton to regionalize the dispatch center with neighboring towns like Portsmouth and Little Compton in the future if that was something the town ever chose to do.

Chief brings up other issues: SRO funding, school safety

Chief Jones took advantage of the congressional delegation’s visit to discuss an array of issues his department is dealing with. He thanked them for a previous grant which resulted in the creation of a community policing unit, introducing them to Lieutenant John LeDuc and Officer Jaqueline Smaldone of said unit, calling them “the leaders of our police department…and outstanding young police officers.”

Jones also mentioned some department needs — in particular, he mentioned his hope of obtaining another federal grant to hire a second SRO for the town’s school district, citing feedback from parents and students at a recent public meeting who said they want to feel safe after recent issues including bomb threats and intruders have left some people feeling on edge about school safety and security. Sen. Jack Reed agreed with Jones that public school systems’ safety needs had changed drastically since over the decades they had respectively served the public, saying, “It just wasn’t like this when we were kids.”

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Tiverton police to renovate station using $1.7 million federal funds