Houston County Sheriff Donald Valenza Issued Radios To ALEA Troopers Months Ago

Rickey Stokes

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Posted by: RStokes
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334-790-1729
Date: Mar 08 2023 10:18 AM

HOUSTON COUNTY:     This week RSN wrote a article on interoperability of law enforcement, fire and EMS.

Houston County Sheriff Donald Valenza issued portable radios to ALEA Troopers on the new Houston County Sheriff radio system when the Sheriff Department went to the new system. Sheriff Valenza issuance was to the ALEA Troopers assigned to Houston County.

Dothan Police Chief Will Benny has integrated the Houston County Sheriff radio channel into the Dothan P25 radio system and doing so for the ALEA Troopers assigned to Houston County.

ALEA Troopers, through no fault of local command, operate on the same radio system they have used since 1977. It is shameful that it will take an Executive Security detail of Alabama Governor or Lieutenant Governor coming under attack and their being unable to call for help to ever get the ALEA Troopers radio system to 2023 standards.

IT IS NOT the duty of Houston County Sheriff Donald Valenza or Dothan Police Chief Will Benny duty to solve the issue. It is not the duty of the local ALEA Post commanders. It is the duty of the top management of ALEA and Alabama Legislators duty to fix this problem. And quite frankly I am not really worried about those under Executive Security but I am worried about the men and women in active law enforcement daily.

There are many areas of this state and in Houston County that ALEA Troopers have no radio communications with their dispatcher. That is a shame and disgrace which the responsibility rests 100% on the leadership of ALEA and the Alabama Legislature along with the Governor.

As the legislature is trying to decide what to do with all of this money, a good idea is - FIX THE COMMUNICATIONS. And honestly it is a simple fix, it just takes getting out of the box.

THE CHASE 

The chase the other night, at 130 miles per hour, it is difficult to get to the portable radio to talk. That is the very reason radios are mounted in the patrol vehicles.

And the radio industry has sold emergency services a bill of goods with departments on totally different systems. It takes about seven radios in order to talk and operate in the wiregrass area and be able to communicate.

I personally have a radio platform on the phone to monitor. And will personally pay for ALEA to have it in order to monitor the local departments. The reason is it is officer safety.

The chase ALEA Trooper was having to use his phone to communicate with the Sheriff 911 dispatcher while attempting to drive safely in the chase which reached speeds of 130 miles per hour. Not according to that ALEA Trooper but sources within the multi department chase.

Houston County Sheriff Donald Valenza and Dothan Police Chief Will Benny are working to solve the local issue. But ALEA has the issue statewide.

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