Oakland County launches new countywide radio system

OAKLAND COUNTY — Oakland County first responders can now be anywhere in the state and contact their home base or communicate with other agencies through radio with the implementation of the county’s $61 million radio system from Motorola.

“How many of you have ever dropped a call on your cellphone? Come on, by a show of hands?” Dave Coulter, Oakland County executive, asked attendees of the press conference held March 27 at Southfield City Hall. “It’s frustrating. It’s irritating. But imagine that you’re a first responder, and you’re on your radio system, and you drop a call. That’s not just frustrating or irritating. It can be dangerous, and it can prevent you from doing the job that you’ve sworn to do.”

The new P-25 system is an upgrade to the county’s 20-year-old radio system, which was implemented in 2005. The county has been using this new system since January 2024. It allows for seamless radio communication across Oakland County, even where it was previously unavailable or was interrupted due to dead spots within the county.

The new system is integrated into the Michigan Public Safety Communication System and connects 2,231 public safety agencies and 126 dispatch centers around the state, which are also operating on the system. According to a press release from Oakland County, the new system supports 41 fire departments, 34 police agencies, seven public safety agencies and 20 dispatch centers in the county.

The funding comes from 911 surcharges on phone bills and $5 million from the Oakland County Board of Commissioners’ general fund.

During the press conference, it was stressed how significant this technology change will be during the NFL Draft in Detroit later this month.

The countywide radio system equips first responders with over 6,000 new radios and 20 upgraded 911 dispatch centers, including one in Southfield.

Southfield’s new dispatch center was updated in November last year and seats up to seven dispatchers.

Southfield Police Lt. Teresa Young emphasized the importance of this new radio system.

“Radio communications is one of the most important aspects of officer safety outside of outstanding training,” Young said. “In Southfield, we discovered that our old radio system was not meeting our officers’ needs, and over time, it was a real officer safety issue. Officers were consistently losing signal within city limits. They lost signal every time we had to leave the city, and we had no way of communicating or listening to radio traffic of surrounding jurisdictions.”

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard addressed transparency concerns and explained that the new system is encrypted.

“Our last system was encrypted, OpenSky. We believe it’s important to be encrypted because our adversaries are not dumb. They’re utilizing scanners to listen to response. We know that the teams in Mumbai were listening to and actually watching video coverage of what the police were doing to thwart their deadly efforts. And so if we don’t have the ability to communicate our strategy, let’s say it’s a hostage situation — without them knowing what we’re about to do — that’s going to put lives at risk.”

Bouchard added, “For the average person that just wants to hear what’s going on, I understand that interest, but the dangers associated with us not being able to have our strategy, our response and our capability private in the moment when it’s happening can cause lives to be lost.”

For more information, visit oakgov.com and search “Enhanced Public Safety with New Radio System.”