Chennai police to get safe and swift Apco-25 soon

“The VHF handsets, hitherto handled by the Chennai police force, will be sent to other districts, once the digital communication network is introduced. The present ‘noisy’ walkie talkies will be replaced by advanced and handy Apco-25 (Association of Public Safety Communications Officials- Project 25) digital handsets. Apco-25 is a worldclass set for digital two-way radio communication. Once completed, Chennai will become the second city in the country to have digital communication network next only to Mumbai. 

The plan has already been approved with a sanction of Rs 49 crore. A special team from the technical wing of the state police will be visiting Mumbai to study the finer details of the project and the specification needed to improve the efficiency. 

Highly placed sources in the technical wing told DT Next that digital communication, which uses UHF frequency, provides digital encryption for more secure communication, better spectrum efficiency and increased penetration. 

According to some of the top officials, the city police personnel were facing severe shortcomings in installed communication system and had to switch from their walkie talkies to mobile phones for faster dissemination of information. 

“The wireless network has been problematic in the city owing to poor connectivity in many areas. At present the city police has only two repeaters (a tower device that strengthens and transmit wireless data) which are installed at Sembium and at Pallavaram,” an official attached to the technical wing said. 

When the city expanded these two repeaters were not sufficient enough to provide efficient communication channels for city police. 

“Moreover, the penetration of VHF transmission is poor. The signals fail to reach the handsets when they are used in closed room and buildings. UHF frequency has been taking care of such issues. Moreover, anyone can eavesdrop the communication on VHF handsets. But, it will not be possible in digital handsets and the digital encryption,” the official added. 

Sources in the police department  said starting with Chennai, other district police forces in the state would also move to digital communication network in the coming years in a phased manner. “We got the Government Order for the project only last week and we want to start the works as soon as possible,”  sources said.