OPINION: The Alaskans behind our first responders

Alaska’s first responders are tasked with maintaining public safety throughout the state. Our responders wear distinctive uniforms and travel in high-visibility vehicles throughout our communities, and we often see them and their efforts, whether it is a fire engine responding to an accident or fire, an ambulance attending to a patient or a state trooper on the side of the road. The individuals we don’t often see are the support personnel who allow our frontline staff to function efficiently and effectively.

There is one group essential to almost all public safety functions, facilitating emergency communications via radio across the state: A team within the Department of Public Safety known as Alaska Public Safety Communication Services (APSCS), has more than 30 people who maintain the infrastructure required for first responders to communicate, receive information and ask for assistance when needed.

In the late 1990s, the Alaska Land Mobile Radio (ALMR) communications system was born. This system, stretching from north of Fairbanks to Southeast, serves public safety users at all levels throughout the state. This model of one shared system for everyone, from the Department of Defense to the local volunteer fire department, is somewhat distinctive to Alaska and ensures that no matter what incident is being handled, from a building fire to a natural disaster, everyone can communicate effectively with each other. This reduces costs, improves efficiency, provides additional security and ultimately saves lives.

The ALMR network requires a tremendous amount of infrastructure and maintenance to ensure it is available at any time of the year and in any type of weather conditions. The APSCS team maintains more than 85 radio and microwave towers throughout the state. All these sites must be checked and maintained regularly to ensure they are constantly operational. Maintaining that amount of infrastructure is challenging, and the distance and terrain in Alaska add another layer of complexity.

The ALMR system has undergone a major lifecycle refresh funded by all three infrastructure partners. The State of Alaska has funded more than $24 million in upgrades to its public safety communications infrastructure to ensure continued operation of critical first responder and public works services. This project involved replacing 292 site radios with modern systems at each ALMR site, updating critical technology that was installed in the system decades ago. Work on this project will continue through 2023 and will result in doubling the voice capacity of the system, as well as introducing new capabilities. Additionally, the APSCS team continually evaluates new technologies to expand the ALMR footprint to more areas of the state.

Alaskans everywhere benefit from reliable communications that dispatch our first responders quickly and ensure they can communicate with their partners easily in any circumstance. The ASPCS team including our public and private partners provides a vital function of public safety and they are proud to serve both first responders and the people of Alaska.

Stephanie Richard is the director of Statewide Services at the Alaska Department of Public Safety. She oversees Alaska’s criminal history repository, Alaska Scientific Crime Detection Lab, APSCS and other statewide public safety programs.

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