The Bozeman Police and Fire Departments now have the capacity to provide better coverage to their rapidly-growing service area with new radios, worth an estimated $1.5 million, according to Sgt. Travis Munter.
"It's more important now than ever," Munter said. "We could be within 100 yards of another officer and we weren't able to communicate with them out on the west end."
Munter told NBC Montana the city has outgrown the department's radio capacity. He said as Bozeman's population grows, more buildings crop up, which caused more interference and static over the old radios, making it harder for officers to communicate with each other and the 911 dispatch center.