Interoperability

In 1997, public safety communications in Indiana formed a quilt of incompatibility. Some agencies like the Indiana State Police were on a 30-year-old lowband VHF system, others were on highband, UHF, and different types of 800 MHz systems. Interoperability was the excep- tion. The reality of the 1990s was that there were not enough funds for every public safety agency to have all the personnel and equipment necessary to handle every situation that might arise. What the times demanded and the public deserved was an integrated communications system. Modern trunking voice and mobile data technology made it possible for different agencies to share a single communication system in which they communicated with whom they needed at a particular time. Because television does not show agencies that are unable to talk to one another, the public believes that such a communications system exists today. When most people are informed of the current communications situation, the most common response is, "You mean they can't do it now?"