Kent McGregor

Chief Kent McGregor

Department of Law Enforcement

With questions regarding membership, please contact Chief Kent McGregor at KentMcGregor@fdle.state.fl.us.
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3) Fax the completed application to Chief Kent McGregor at 850.922.3833.

Kent McGregorFlorida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE)850-410-7645kentmcgregor@fdle.state.fl.us

Kent McGregor is a regional chief of investigations for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement who has some electronics training.

McGregor, who went to the hurricane-ravaged areas of Southwest Florida, said there were at least four 800 megahertz mutual aid radio channels available.That's more than enough, he said.

Bringing In Problems

For a few hours, no one could talk on those channels in DeSoto County and parts of Charlotte after equipment went down in the storm, perhaps from a tornado.

But that kind of thing is going to happen, he said.Technicians with the Florida Highway Patrol, which is partly responsible for the state's mutual aid channels, worked through the night to fix the communications problem, McGregor said.

But many law enforcement officers who came to help were unprepared, he said.
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Still, even with proper equipment, McGregor said, "A lot of [officers] don't comprehend the mutual aid system."

Officers are used to working their own radio systems, which have one channel for dispatch, another for car-to-car communication, a third for checking license plates and the like.

New radios have a scan feature that can give their owners the impression they are talking on one mutual aid frequency when they are listening on that channel and cleared to talk on another, McGregor said.

A particular channel will only handle so many users."You can't have 200 people talk at the same time and all of them get through," McGregor said.

The phone's long-range walkie-talkie enables instant communication with multiple agencies at once, critical as we work to ensure the safety of event participants -- our top priority," said Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) Chief Kent McGregor.