By Marshall Griffin, KWMU
St. Louis, MO. – Missouri has been awarded a federal grant worth more than $17 million to help upgrade emergency communications throughout the state.
Paul Fennewald, Homeland Security Coordinator for Missouri, says 80 percent of the grant money will be available to county and city governments.
"We can have not only the radio communications, but all the other aspects of communications being able to send digital information, photographs, or maybe text messages or faxes or whatever type stuff, having that whole spectrum of communications available to them," Fennewald said.
The remaining 20 percent of the federal grant will be reserved for state-level emergency responders.
Fennewald says purchases made by state agencies and local governments will be reimbursed by the federal grant.