By David Eck
Enquirer contributor

LOVELAND - Public safety officials from several Tristate counties are planning to meet next week to discuss communications concerns.

At issue: making sure firefighters and police officers from different counties can talk to each other at an emergency scene. Communications officials, firefighters and police officials from area counties are expected to attend the meeting, said Otto Huber, chief of the Loveland-Symmes Fire Department.

"It's a regional problem," Huber said. "We need to take a regional approach to fixing it. We really need to focus on this."

The problem, officials say, is that radio systems aren't always compatible from county to county.

"We need to bridge that gap," Huber said. "It's not a matter of anybody's' radio (system). It's a matter of how do we get ... these radios to talk to each other."

The issue came into play last week at a fire in Loveland during which fire departments from Hamilton, Warren and Clermont counties responded. The different radio systems made it hard for the various crews to communicate.

"It didn't hamper the firefighting efforts," Huber said. "(But) it made operations on the fireground much more difficult."

Such a situation can jeopardize firefighter safety and impede an effective firefighting operation, officials said.

"We wind up having firefighters on that fire ground that can't communicate with the incident commander," Huber said. "They can't coordinate their activities."

Officials hope to develop a plan to address the issue.

"We need to do this in a concise, planned manner," said Frank Young, director of emergency services for Warren County. "I don't want to put a Band-Aid over something. I think Warren County is very sensitive to this. But let's make sure what we put together is not only good for today, but down the road."

Despite the incompatibilities in the various systems, they all carry several designated mutual aid channels that can be used anywhere, officials said. Some argue that those channels should be organized and be the backbone of interagency coordination for the region.

"The owners of these systems ... we need to look at those mutual aid frequencies and how the national plan lays them out for use," Young said. "That's the reason they were developed. Let's make them work. Let's do it in a uniform pattern."

E-mail daveck@fuse.net