The Marana News wrote an article about the Town replacing the current public safety communications system with the Pima County Wireless Integrated Network radio system, or PCWIN.
Switching to PCWIN will enhance communication between the Marana Police Department and all other law enforcement and fire departments in the county. According to Marana Chief of Police Terry Rozema, who spoke to council at the March 20 meeting, there’s been a push to increase interoperability between public safety organizations ever since the terror attcks on Sept. 11, 2001.
“From a public safety standpoint, this is really kind of a no brainer for us,” he said.
MPD regularly works with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department and the Northwest Fire District. The current system doesn’t allow MPD ease of communication with those entities, or other Southern Arizona law enforcement or fire service agencies that use PCWIN.
When MPD communicates with other jurisdictions, officers call MPD dispatch, who then call the other organizations on the phone—a process that takes time the officers don’t always have.
An example Rozema gave was MPD could be chasing a suspect that crosses into unincorporated Pima County, necessitating collaboration with Pima County Sheriff’s Department. By the time MPD conveys their location to the Sheriff’s Department, MPD officers are already in a different place, due to the time lapse.
Read the full story in the Marana News
