If you’ve ever wondered why it takes so long for police, fire, and EMS crews from different Boone County agencies to talk to each other during a big call, the county is finally doing something about it — and it’s going to cost more than $11 million.
The Boone County Commission has launched what it’s calling the Radio Grant Program, a fund to help local police, fire, and EMS agencies buy the handheld and in-vehicle radios they’ll need to join the county’s new public safety radio system. The county expects the total cost of getting everyone equipped to top $11.7 million, paid for out of the county’s existing 911 emergency sales tax — not a new tax.
The first agencies to sign on: Columbia Police, Columbia Fire, Hallsville Police, Centralia Fire, and Centralia Police. According to KOMU 8, Columbia’s police and fire departments alone account for roughly $3.5 million of that — 237 portable and 119 mobile radios for police, plus 71 portable and 55 mobile radios and 32 pagers for fire.
Why so much hardware, and why now? Boone County is retiring its current VHF radio network for an 800 MHz P25 Phase 2 system — the modern standard that lets different agencies, and different counties, talk to each other on the same channels during a joint response instead of relaying messages by phone. Presiding Commissioner Kip Kendrick put it plainly in the county’s announcement: “Boone County first responders deserve a modern, reliable and interoperable radio system.”
Columbia Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer has been more specific about what the old system costs departments day to day. Describing the workaround crews use now when radios can’t reach each other, he told ABC 17 News it can mean pulling someone out of a hazardous area just “to talk to somebody” and relay information back — essentially playing telephone during an emergency.
The switchover won’t happen all at once. Equipment was expected to ship by the end of June, the system transition begins in October, Columbia Fire’s new radios are due by December 1, and the county wants every agency fully switched over by March 2027. More agencies — including University of Missouri Police, MU Health Care, and the Southern Boone and Boone County fire protection districts — have applications pending.
None of this touches Rocheport directly the way a road closure or a school calendar does, but it matters here anyway: mutual-aid calls that cross county and department lines are exactly the moments a system like this is built for, and Cooper and Howard county agencies may see the same push once Boone’s rollout proves out.
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