NEWS RELEASE-HQ FOR ALL
NEWS RELEASE                  Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
                              Office for InformationTechnology
                              Commonwealth News Bureau
                              Room 308, Main Capitol
                              Harrisburg, PA  17120

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE              CONTACT: Scott Elliott
                              Phone: (717) 772-4237

        GOVERNOR SIGNS BILL TO ENHANCE PUBLIC SAFETY
  Legislation Will Provide $179 Million for Communications
                           Network

     HARRISBURG (Dec. 5) -- Gov. Tom Ridge today signed a
bill funding the construction of a shared, statewide,
digital radio network that will enhance public safety by
enabling the Pennsylvania State Police and other state
agencies to communicate more easily with each other during
times of emergency.

     The bill invests $179 million to fund a new radio
infrastructure -- building radio towers and equipping them
with transmitters -- over four years.  In addition to
supporting inter-agency communications among state agencies,
plans call for the infrastructure to be made available to
county and local governments that want to share the radio
towers while providing  their own portable radio equipment.

     Ridge lauded the integrated radio system as another
example of his administration's commitment to deploy
information technologies in a manner that boosts public
service while actually trimming state expenses.

     "This is a technology whose time has come," Ridge said.
"Imagine the benefit to Pennsylvanians during a public
emergency when the State Police, PennDOT, the Pennsylvania
Emergency Management Agency, and all the other agencies with
troopers and field workers are able to share information at
ease.

     "Of course, there will be benefits in their day-to-day
operations, too.  But the most dramatic advantages will be
apparent in the property and lives saved through more
effective radio communications during times of natural
disaster," Ridge added.

     The new radio network will operate in the 800 Mhz
frequencies.  Funding for the project will be used to build
the necessary radio towers and equip them with transmitters,
with each state agency responsible for purchasing its own
mobile radios for use on the network.

     Because it is digital, the integrated radio system will
also provide enhanced capabilities of special usefulness to
law enforcement officials.  For example, the new radio
system's digital signal will be more resistant to static
interference than the analog signals associated with older
technology.  The digital signal will be better suited to
data communications, too, so that State Police troopers will
be able to more easily receive and
transmit data to help them in fighting crime and managing
traffic violations.

     Scrambled radio messages over digital public service
channels are harder for eavesdroppers to intercept and
decipher, so criminals are more often thwarted in their
attempts to track police activities.  Plus, the new
statewide radio system should
prove to be more reliable than the existing network, parts
of  which use outmoded technology which is increasingly hard
to maintain.

     Ridge was joined during today's ceremony in the
Governor's Reception Room by representatives of several
state agencies that will benefit from the new radio system,
including the State Police, the Pennsylvania Emergency
Management Agency, the
Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the Game
Commission, and the Department of Transportation.