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Municipalities in central Prince George's County are banking on state grant funding to purchase radios that can access the county's new public safety communications system.

The county announced Dec. 7 an approximately $80 million 700 MHz communications system that is designed to link by the end of 2010 all county agencies such as police, fire and EMS with municipalities with neighboring jurisdictions, such as the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., said John Erzen, a spokesman for County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D).

The new system, which also would eliminate dead spots where an officer's police radio signal drops out, comes with a hefty price tag for municipalities. Motorola handheld radios cost between $3,873 and $4,335 each, and in-car radios cost about an additional $1,000 each.

To pay for the radios that pick up the 700 MHz frequency, 23 municipalities in the county applied by Dec. 10 for money from the state's Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention.

By the end of December, the office will award $1.5 million from combined federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money and money House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Dist. 5) of Mechanicsville was able to set aside to municipalities, said GOCCP Director Kristen Mahoney.

"The goal of the project is to have a meaningful impact toward interoperability," Mahoney said. "The goal has never been to solve the problem. The goal has been to be a contributor to the solution."

Glenarden is among the county municipalities that applied for GOCCP grant funding. Glenarden Chief Phillip O'Donnell said the city sought after Congressional and Senate level funding in prior years but never heard back about receiving money.

O'Donnell said he applied for $100,000 for 11 portable radios and 11 in-car units through the GOCCP. There are 10 officers and 11 police cars, and his force could get by without the in-car units if necessary, he said.

"It's frustrating when you're responsible for public safety in the community and you absolutely need this radio system to provide the public safety," O'Donnell said. "It's pretty intense when you don't know where this funding is coming from. Municipalities can't come up with $100,000 to buy radios but hopefully it's all worked out now."

Fairmount Heights Chief Wendell Brantley said the department, which hopes to get six radios, didn't receive information until the "ninth hour" about applying for the GOCCP grant and was able to turn in the grant by Dec. 7, the Web site application deadline. Hard copies were due to the state by Dec. 10.

If a municipality did not receive grant funding, a police officer for that town would have to make a phone call to the county or another jurisdiction instead of switching back and forth on the same radio in cases where a SWAT team or forensic units were necessary, Mahoney said.

"First responders take this seriously," Mahoney said. "Not having a radio to talk to Prince George's [County police], they're going to figure out a way to communicate."

Mahoney said state officials spoke with municipal police chiefs to determine how many radios were needed. She admits that the towns and cities still have a long way to go but will at least be able to communicate on a basic level.

She said it will be a local decision whether municipalities are required to come online or if it is in their best interest, but the money the GOCCP provides must go toward getting towns ready for 700MHz frequency.

There are 27 municipalities in Prince George's County, but North Brentwood and Eagle Harbor do not have police departments. The Bowie and Laurel police, in addition to Greenbelt and Hyattsville received a combined $2.6 million federal funding for police equipment upgrades over fiscal 2008 and fiscal 2009 according to Hoyer's Web site.

County police will switch to the new system district by district, and the municipalities will go online at the same time as their police district, Erzen said.

The southern portion of the county will come online first because it experiences more dead spots where radio signals disappear, he said.

The southernmost police districts are districts 4 in Oxon Hill and 5 in Clinton. There are six police districts, but the majority of central county municipalities are covered by District 3 in Palmer Park.

It was a five-and-a-half-year process to design a new system, send out bids for work and select a company — ultimately Motorola — to work with, Erzen said.

"We are the last county in this region to have a system that allows us to talk to everybody else," Erzen said. "We've long been the communications gap in the region but now we won't be."

E-mail Natalie McGill at nmcgill@gazette.net.