UVALDE, Texas — A $4.3 million grant has been used to improve radio communications at thirteen school districts within Uvalde, Val Verde, and Kinney counties.
On May 24, 2022, 19 children and two teachers were killed in a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. More than 370 officials from federal, state, and local agencies responded to the shooting yet it took law enforcement officials 77 minutes to take down the gunman.
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In January 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice released a scathing report on the incident, calling law enforcement’s response a “significant failure.” Among those failures was a breakdown in communication as police officers had issues using their radios to communicate in school hallways. Senator Roland Gutierrez said the communications failures were partly due to the responding law enforcement agencies contracting with different radio companies rather than being on one uniform network.
Shortly after the shooting, two law enforcement officials also told the Austin American-Statesman that Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police chief who oversaw law enforcement’s response, arrived at the scene without his radio and other critical equipment.
Uvalde, Val Verde, Kinney Counties Use Grant Money to Purchase Over 200 Radios
According to ABC 13, back in 2015, officials in Uvalde, Val Verde, and Kinney counties wrote to the governor’s office and Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw asking for help with what they called a “failing communications system.” In Kinney County, firefighters reportedly had to rely on inexpensive walkie-talkies as they were unable to reach central dispatch or law enforcement during fires. Their request was denied.
In May 2024, two years after the shooting, Uvalde County received the $4.3 million grant from the Office of the Governor. Uvalde Emergency Management Coordinator Forrest Anderson told ABC 13 that the funding has been used to purchase more than 260 Motorola radios. Each radio operates on VHF, 700/800 MHz, cellular, and Wi-Fi networks.
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“If you don’t have communications, if you don’t have situational awareness, you’re behind the eight ball very quickly. This gets us out of that mode,” said Anderson. “The Del Rio San Felipe chief is ecstatic over this. Exactly, a game changer were his words.”
The funding was also approved to use for a new transmission tower, NBC reports. In 2024, Anderson said it had been 15 years since the infrastructure was improved.
“This 88-foot tower will provide vertical and horizontal space across those antennas,” he said.
