The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office has recently received a $40,000 grant that’ll go toward the upgrade of the county’s law enforcement radio communication system.

A brand new digital repeater system, digital car radios and handheld radios have been purchased with those funds.

We spoke with Cherokee County Sheriff Jeff Shaver about the new equipment

The sheriff went on to say that the upgrade has been a long-time coming, however the problem up until now has been a lack of funding

At some point, all public safety agencies across the nation will be required to communicate on a digital system as conventional analog radio systems will soon become a thing of the past.

We also spoke with EMA Director Beverly Daniel about the change

Again, your current analog scanner will continue to pick up fire and ambulance calls but you will no longer be able to monitor law enforcement calls unless you purchase a new digital scanner.

According to Sheriff Shaver the changeover to digital takes place locally on Monday (May 5th).