Governor Warner Launches Commonwealth's New Multi-Agency Communications System

Governor Warner Launches Commonwealth's New Multi-Agency Communications System

— Governor Warner Conducts First Live Public Transmission of Virginia's Statewide Agencies Radio System (STARS) —

Governor Mark R. Warner today conducted the first live, public transmission of the Commonwealth's new Statewide Agencies Radio System (STARS). STARS provides Virginia's state level first responders with cutting-edge integrated voice and data communications.

"For the first time, 21 Virginia state agencies will be able to communicate directly with one another," said Governor Warner. "STARS is the Commonwealth's first and foremost step in achieving interoperable communication among our first responders - local and statewide."

At an afternoon press conference at the Virginia State Police Administrative Headquarters in Richmond, Governor Warner demonstrated the state-of-the-art radio system by talking to Virginia State Police Trooper Gary R. Horner Jr. On the night of Nov. 24, 2002, Trooper Horner was shot seven times at an Interstate 64 rest area in New Kent County. It took him four tries for his radio traffic to make it through to a state police dispatcher in Richmond. Trooper Horner was at the rest area Tuesday when Governor Warner radioed to him to demonstrate STARS' new technological and life-saving capabilities.

"STARS saves lives," said Governor Warner. "When seconds count, so does clear, effective communication. Being heard the first time is critical, especially when an officer is calling a dispatcher for an injured motorist, a crime victim, or in the case of Virginia State Police Trooper Gary Horner, for himself."

Sixteen years in the making, STARS is built on the foundation of the recognized needs for a shared, statewide, public safety-grade radio system that facilitates law enforcement mobile data, as well as interoperability between state and local police communications systems at the city or county level. STARS replaces the existing analog communications system used by the Virginia State Police and other state agencies with a VHF digital high-band system that integrates radio and wireless data communications.

The Commonwealth of Virginia and Motorola, Inc., entered into a $329-million contract to build, manufacture and install Virginia's first statewide multi-agency radio system in July 2004. The STARS Project is scheduled to be implemented over a six-year period, beginning in December 2005 with those state agency personnel working within the Virginia State Police Division I - Richmond. As the STARS program progresses, statewide implementation is anticipated to be finished ahead of schedule in the summer of 2008. The original completion date had been September 2009.

STARS membership includes the following Virginia state agencies:

* Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel Police;
* Department of Alcohol Beverage Control;
* Department of Charitable Gaming;
* Division of Capitol Police;
* Department of Conservation and Recreation;
* Department of Corrections;
* Department of Emergency Management;
* Department of Environmental Quality;
* Department of Fire Programs;
* Department of Forestry;
* Department of Game and Inland Fisheries;
* Department of Health;
* Department of Juvenile Justice;
* Department of Military Affairs;
* Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy;
* Department of Motor Vehicles;
* Department of State Police;
* Department of Transportation;
* Virginia Information Technologies Agency;
* Virginia Marine Resources Commission; and
* Virginia Port Authority.

Virginia's interoperability efforts have already been recognized by the Department of Homeland Security's SAFECOM, the federal entity charged with improving radio communication among first responders nationwide, as a best practices model. The Strategic Interoperability Plan and the office of the Statewide Interoperability Coordinator guide local first responders on a parallel and complementary effort to develop seamless communications with the STARS effort.

City and county police, fire, and rescue will also have the ability to affiliate with STARS through their emergency communications dispatch centers. The interoperability access will be provided by the state to the localities at no cost. A $1.5 million homeland security grant has already been secured for the purchasing and installation of equipment needed to integrate 14 local jurisdictions within the Greater Richmond Region into the COMLINC (Commonwealth's Link to Interoperable Communication) network. COMLINC is also being implemented in six localities in the Roanoke region, through a U.S. Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant.

http://www.governor.virginia.gov/Press_Policy/Releases/2005/Dec05/1220.htm