Funding will help complete statewide emergency communications

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Funding was set aside to enhance and expand VIPER, the statewide emergency communication system.

Nearly 300 emergency response agencies across the state already communicate with one another through the system.

VIPER is a multimillion-dollar system that lets fire, paramedics, local law enforcement as well as state and federal public safety agencies across North Carolina talk to each other one unified system.

Channel 9 spoke with VIPER System Manager Mike Hodgson by phone Friday.

"Essentially the VIPER system, the 'I' in VIPER is 'interoperability,' and that's an effort to try to get as many agencies together on one radio system so that we can all communicate and share information during time of emergencies," he said.

The VIPER system is only 84 percent complete. New funding will take care of the last leg.

Lawmakers just approved $2.8 million for operations and maintenance, and $25 million was approved to upgrade the system to P-25 digital two-way wireless technology.

Another $7 million will kick in starting in the 2014-15 fiscal year to construction 29 VIPER towers in the western part of the state.

There are currently around 65,000 users on the network. The P-25 technology will help double that number.

It's the same digital technology that was installed for emergency responders in Charlotte ahead of the Democratic National Convention.

A Channel 9 crew stopped by Affordable Cuts Family Hair Care Salon across the street from a VIPER tower in Monroe.

The women there had no clue what the tower was used for until Channel 9 told them. After seeing several recent natural disasters and large scale emergencies like the Boston Marathon bombings, they are glad to know the state is taking steps to be prepared for anything.

Construction on the last leg of the VIPER system is expected to be completed in three years.