WASHINGTON STATE

Washington State House Democrats

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

King County emergency radio network approved

This is so important for ensuring that our first responders and emergency managers are able to protect our people and communities. This levy helps us modernize King County’s emergency communications network and ensure interoperability with other local, state, and federal officials who need to coordinate responses to emergency situations.

As I work with legislators from around our state and in the Pacific Northwest to support more resilient communities and economic infrastructure, I look forward to supporting King County’s efforts to build a modernized and reliable emergency communications network for our region.

From the Seattle Times:

King County voters Tuesday approved a $246 million levy to upgrade and expand King County’s emergency-radio network used daily by police, fire, emergency-medical staff and 911 dispatchers from jurisdictions across the county.

In Tuesday’s vote count, 65 percent were supporting the property-tax levy known as Proposition 1.

County officials have said the network, originally built in 1997, doesn’t reach all areas of the county and the current signal is sometimes blocked by high-rise buildings within cities. That’s made it hard for first responders to talk with each other at incidents or relay information to dispatchers, levy backers said.

The network contractor, Motorola, has also said it won’t support the current system after 2018.

The nine-year levy, which required a simple majority to pass, will cost $0.07 per $1,000 of assessed valuation beginning in 2016.

Click here to read the entire story.