The radio system on the other hand, is in fact, the cutting edge of radio system by Motorola. The system is Motorola's top of the line 800 digital radio system. This system was installed about 1996 for about 16 million dollars. Funding for the system was ordered by the federal government under a program called C.S.E.P.P. (Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program) Two counties, Calhoun & Talladega, received a brand new radio system. This program was put in place by the U.S. Congress due to the destruction of some 7% of the U.S. stock pile of deadly chemical weapons at the Anniston Army Depot. At the end of the cold war, U.S. and Russia entered into a treaty to destroy all the chemical weapons in both their arsenals. Due to the danger in destroying these chemical weapons, the federal government created a program called C.S.E.P.P. (Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program). Part of the program required that all the public agencies in the two counties be able to talk with one another during an emergency at the Anniston Army Depot. 10 years later, Congress ordered the whole system to be up-graded. So around the end of September 2006, the up-grade to this radio system will be completed at an estimated cost of some 26 million dollars. The new main dispatch console is so new that at the time this website was being created, (March 2006), The Calhoun County E.M.A. and the sales reps at Motorola did not even know what it would look like. This new console was being created for this program. (Great, Ginny pigs again)

In early 2005, the Jacksonville Police Department and the Fire Department combined communication dispatch into one central dispatch. There were a number of reasons for doing so, but the biggest was to provide the citizens of Jacksonville with a more streamline form of communications for emergency services. I feel we have a team of very experienced and hard working "Public Safety Communication Operators" The job they do is a vital link from the public to the first responders on the street be it police, fire or EMS. The communication staff are;