South Carolina Palmetto 800 MHz

During natural or man-made disasters, it is important for law enforcement, fire, EMS, public works, and emergency preparedness agencies and officials to be connected. Palmetto 800 allows agencies with dissimilar radio and communications equipment to talk to each other.

Historically, each public safety agency has maintained its own unique radio system, which has resulted in difficulty communicating between agencies.  In 1999, at the direction of the South Carolina General Assembly, the Public Safety Coordinating Council completed a study of public safety communications.  The resulting report recommended the use of a statewide 800 MHz radio system as the technology of choice for public safety communications.

The National Law Enforcement an Corrections Technology Center – Southeast Region (NLECTC – Southeast) was asked to provide technical assistance to the State Budget and Control Board, Chief Information Office to plan, organize and coordinate a program to effectively enhance interoperability and transition law enforcement agencies to the statewide 800 MHz radio System (Palmetto 800 Trunked Radio Network).  National Institute of Justice (NIJ) grant funds have been allocated for the purchase of handheld, mobile, console and repeater radio equipment for the project, designed as the State Interoperability Project.

South Carolina’s coastal counties, population centers, evacuation routes, interstate corridors, and ports have been project priorities. In Phases One and Two eighteen (18) county law enforcement agencies and fifty-eight (58) municipal police departments in the coastal and midland regions of South Carolina received funding assistance. Phase Three moved the project westward to the Upstate Region of South Carolina, in which twenty-two (22) county law enforcement agencies and thirty-four (34) municipal police departments received assistance. Phase Four of the State Interoperability Project commenced in 2005. Forty-six (46) municipal police agencies and thirty-seven (37) county coroner’s offices received assistance. The project is nearing completion. All Sheriffs’ Offices and municipal police departments in South Carolina, formerly without statewide 800 MHz capability, were offered the opportunity for interoperable voice communications on the Palmetto 800 Trunked Radio Network.

The system has developed into one of the country's largest, most interoperable voice and data radio systems with over 21,000 users and representing more than 350 different agencies that operate on one common radio system. The Palmetto 800 system provides critical public safety communications and interoperability to public safety agencies statewide.