News

Sheriff’s department goes to digital radios

By Scott Wagar

12/25/2012

The Bottineau County Sheriff’s Department has made improvements in its communication department by transferring its analog radios over to digital.

“We have our own digital channel within our department, which grants us access to conduct our jobs better,” said Steve Watson, sheriff of Bottineau County. “The frequencies are higher than an analog radio and people with scanners cannot pick-up the digital frequency, assisting us as law enforcement when performing our jobs.”

Watson added that at the present moment digital scanners cannot be purchased by the general public, which grants them more leeway in doing their duties in law enforcement and stopping crime in the community.

For years, the local police department has struggled with individuals with scanners, who keep a close insight in the police’s whereabouts and how they conduct their duties while investigating crimes. With the departments’ new radio system, local folks will not be able to keep close tabs on them because they will not be able to scan-in on their frequencies with an analog scanner.

Watson also said the radios and base stations are more individual friendly than analog and easier to use.

“An example of this is that we can switch over to scan and pick everybody up with a flick of a button,” Watson said. “And, we can switch over to another digital channel to speak with other emergency responders just by pushing a button. By doing it the old way through analog frequencies the process was much more difficult.”

The county switched over to digital radios because all state agencies made the change.

“The state was going off analog to digital,” Watson said. “So, every county in the state followed.”

Homeland Security financed the digital system through a grant they acquired.