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OFFICE OF GOVERNOR ANDY BESHEAR








*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*




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*Scottie Ellis
502-401-6933*
"[email protected]" <[email protected]>






Gov Beshear: Kentucky State Police, Graves County, Mayfield First Responders Strengthen Interagency Communication  

"New emergency radio system enhances public and officer safety"

*MAYFIELD, Ky. (Dec. 9, 2025)* – Today, Gov. Andy Beshear was joined by the Kentucky State Police (KSP), Mayfield Mayor Kathy O’Nan, the Graves County Sheriff’s Office, Mayfield Police Department and Mayfield Fire and EMS to launch a new radio system ensuring reliable communications between first responders.

KSP Posts 1 and 2, which collectively serve Ballard, Caldwell, Calloway, Carlisle, Christian, Crittenden, Fulton, Graves, Hickman, Hopkins, Livingston, Lyon, Marshall, McCracken, Muhlenberg, Todd, Trigg and Webster counties, utilize the Statewide Emergency Responder Voice System (SERVS), allowing the state police enhanced radio communications with 9-1-1 dispatch. The radio system is free for local agencies to utilize if their equipment is compatible. Today, the Graves County Sheriff’s Office, Mayfield Police Department, and Mayfield Fire and EMS transitioned to the KSP radio system, meaning all agencies will communicate on the same network, leaving no gaps in communication and increasing efficiency.

“Our first responders display such sacrifice each day, and while we will never be able to fully repay our gratitude, we will do our best to show we care through support with equipment like this new radio system,” *Gov. Beshear* said. “To stay safe while on duty, our first responders and law enforcement officers must be able to communicate with local dispatch and one another when backup or critical information is needed. This new radio system is another step in ensuring they return home to their families after protecting our communities.”

This radio system in Western Kentucky was completed in April 2025, and by spring of next year, KSP Post 3 and Post 16 will be capable of supporting local users, guaranteeing improved first responder communications coverage for hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians.

“By bringing our partner agencies onto this state-of-the-art system, we ensure that help can be sent where it is needed most—when seconds count—while also returning valuable funds to those agencies as they no longer shoulder the cost of maintaining their own radio infrastructure,” *KSP Maj. David Archer* said.

“The Mayfield police and fire departments are pleased to be amongst the first emergency service agencies to join the new Statewide Emergency Responder Voice System. A program of this magnitude and significance is what results from everyone pulling in the same direction,” said *Mayfield Police Chief Nathan Kent*. “Our local, existing radio infrastructure is ailing, with coverage gaps and periodic failures. It’s reassuring for our first responders, their families and the citizens we serve that this new radio system will alleviate those concerns.”

To complete the project statewide, KSP is requesting $107 million in additional funding from the General Assembly, for engineering, construction, special equipment and project management to ensure coverage in Eastern Kentucky.

The Beshear-Coleman administration’s top priority is the safety of all Kentuckians. The Governor’s public safety actions are creating safer communities and a better Kentucky.

The 2024 Crime in Kentucky report [ [link removed] ], released in June [ [link removed] ], shows that, from 2023 to 2024, reports of serious crime decreased by 7.66%.

In September [ [link removed] ], Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman joined KSP to break ground on a new, state-of-the-art Drivers’ Skills Pad at the agency’s training academy in Frankfort. The $2.7 million project will provide troopers, officers and cadets with a facility dedicated to safely practice and refine advanced driving techniques.

In April [ [link removed] ], Gov. Beshear was joined by members of the Cash family, the Kentucky law enforcement community and the Department of Criminal Justice Training to officially open the doors to the new law enforcement training facility named in honor of Jody Cash, who lost his life in the line of duty. The facility is a 42,794-square-foot facility with a 50-yard, 30-lane firing range designed for officers to learn intensive and specialized training that will support training all of Kentucky’s law enforcement agencies.

At the beginning of his second term, the Governor proposed [ [link removed]. ] a $500 increase to the law enforcement annual training stipend, but the General Assembly chose to provide a combined $262 increase over the next two years. The budget [ [link removed] ] signed by the Governor raises the training stipend to an all-time high of $4,562 by fiscal year 2026. Additionally, the Governor is providing part-time law enforcement officers with an annual training stipend for the first time in the history of the commonwealth.

As the Governor recommended in January 2022, $12.2 million was included in the state budget for KSP to purchase body cameras, which is the first time in the commonwealth’s history that funding has been allocated for this much-needed expense.

For more information about KSP’s commitment to creating a better Kentucky by making the commonwealth’s streets safer, communities stronger and the nation more secure by providing exceptional law enforcement, click here [ [link removed] ].

KSP’s mission is to provide public safety, maintain critical services and safeguard the communities that KSP serves. For more information about KSP’s commitment to creating a better Kentucky, click here [ [link removed] ].

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