The Wayne State University Police Department recently installed and implemented their new 800 MHz radio system. Funded by a federal grant, the WSU radio system project was initiated approximately four years ago.

Wayne State’s system is an add-on to the statewide, Michigan Public Safety Communications System (MPSCS), via the City of Detroit Zone 7 system.

The WSU police dispatch becomes a 7th dispatch location within the city and a fully functional backup to the Detroit 800 MHz system.

The design of Wayne State’s system will also accommodate non-police talk groups such as Facilities Planning and Management (FP&M), Parking and other university departments. Currently FP&M has joined the system which allows direct radio communications interoperability with the WSU police.

Another feature of the new system is a campus emergency talk group which provides opportunities for all WSU users to communicate with each other. In addition, a special University Administrative private talk group is included offering private radio communications for high level Wayne State administrators.

The new 800 MHz Motorola Gold Elite console allows integration of the former WSU police and non-police radio systems. The older radio systems can be “patched” into the new system to allow cross talk communications between 450 MHz radios and 800 MHz radios. Public Safety civilian employees, cadets and technicians, will continue to use the 450 MHz radio system.

Currently there are over 800 Federal, State and local agencies in the MPSCS with approximately 33,000 radios on the system. Wayne State University becomes the first Michigan University to join the MPSCS as a fully functional member and can now communicate directly with other regional and state agencies, particularly in emergency situations.

Wayne State University is a premier institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic programs through 11 schools and colleges to more than 33,000 students.