Cook County’s (Chicago) Project Shield, a communications system for first responders in municipalities across the county, will begin its third phase of the nation’s largest regional broadband interoperable communications system for first responders. The initiative is being led by Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls.

This phase of Project Shield expands the capability to an additional 80 communities within Cook County, and complements and allows additional expanded capabilities in support of the Cook County Sheriff’s Radio Network. It allows video surveillance exchange with Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications and has defined critical infrastructures such as regional water treatment plants. It also enables an Emergency Alerting capability, which will allow a single message to be broadcast to PCs, mobile data terminals, wireless handheld devices, cell phones and pagers.

Cook County is made up of 128 municipalities, including Chicago.