Public Safety

Cities Sign Up For 'NextGen' Regional Communication System

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published February 3, 2014 at 3:00 AM PST

This story was published more than 10 years ago.

San Diego County is gathering support for the purchase of a new regional communication system that will ultimately cost more than $100 million.

Changing technology means San Diego County’s current Regional Communication System, (RCS) relied on by public safety agencies, will soon be obsolete.

The estimated $105-million price tag of the NextGen RCS will be shared between about 40 agencies, including fire, police, public transit agencies and cities.

Sue Willy of the Sherriff’s department said the current radios used by public safety agencies were new back in the 1990s.

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“And the system is no longer supported by the manufactures,” she said, “so parts are not available, the software is no longer supported. So there’s a limited amount of time we can continue to operate on the system. “

She compared it to operating an old car… at some point it becomes necessary to pony up the money for a new one.

The city of San Marcos has agreed to contribute more than $2.5 million to buy more than 400 of the new radios. Vista has committed $1.75 million for 285 radios.

Cities have till the end of March to sign up. The city of San Diego has its own communication system that is interoperable with the county's.

The county plans to award the lucrative contract next year, but the new system is not projected to be ready to go till 2018.

Public Safety

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.