Bracken County Fiscal Court votes to seek RFP to remove RAS key and upgrade radio encryption

Bracken County Fiscal Court members voted to authorize a public request for proposals to remove the county’s RAS key and solicit bids to upgrade encryption and repeater equipment for the county radio system.

The motion, approved by roll call at the end of the meeting, directs staff to prepare an RFP that includes one option for enhanced‑privacy encryption and a separate option that would enable AES‑256 government‑level encryption, and to include specifications in the third vendor bid that would replace or reconfigure repeaters to restore mutual‑aid talk groups.

Why it matters: County officials said the work is needed to resolve security noncompliance and address mutual‑aid and coverage gaps. Vendor representatives told the court some users currently have the law‑enforcement talk group programmed on radios without required SIEGES certification, and that removing the RAS key will force a countywide move to a higher encryption standard and require hands‑on reprogramming of radios.

Vendor Noah of DKC described three procurement approaches during the meeting. He said one quote — about $29,935 — would keep an analog repeater and add encryption to certain channels; a larger quote, roughly $62,845, would replace the analog repeater with a DMR repeater to restore two talk‑group paths for mutual aid; and a separate estimate of about $20,000 was provided for removing the RAS key. “One is basic encryption… the next one is enhanced privacy. It is 40‑bit rolling code… and the next step is the government’s security code which is AES 256,” Noah said, explaining the technical tiers and that enabling AES‑256 requires entitlement keys and firmware upgrades that drive cost.

Court members pressed for clarity on interoperability. Officials were told that DMR‑to‑P25 compatibility is not native: agencies on P25 systems, such as some neighboring counties, will not automatically interoperate with Bracken’s DMR system without permission to be on their system or different radios. The vendor said the third quote would allow mutual aid among agencies using DMR radios but would not solve P25 law‑enforcement compatibility.

Operational impacts were a central concern. The vendor warned that removing the RAS key and enabling encryption would require physically reprogramming every mobile radio in the county, a process the vendor estimated could take several days of continuous work and would temporarily force responders onto analog channels with reduced coverage. The court also discussed tornado‑siren signaling and coverage at the proposed central tower site at Bluegrass.

Cost and funding questions remained unresolved. Magistrates asked whether the sheriff’s office or grant money could cover part of the expense; the vendor and court members said grant eligibility was unlikely because the county’s system is not P25. The group discussed providing two pricing options in the RFP (enhanced privacy vs. AES‑256) to compare immediate cost and long‑term security.

The motion called for a public bid for removal of the RAS key, inclusion of enhanced‑privacy encryption as the baseline, and an alternate option in the RFP for AES‑256 level encryption and repeater upgrades. The court recorded the final roll‑call vote in favor: Craig Miller, David Kelch, Danny Hollerin, Debbie Mayfield, John Scott, Heather Brembley, Judge T. Garden, and Sandy Ruff voted yes.

Next steps: The court directed staff and the county attorney to draft the RFP language and specifications and to proceed with the public bid process. The RFP is expected to include two pricing tracks (enhanced privacy and AES‑256) and require vendors to specify implementation timelines, expected radio‑touch time per unit, and answers about entitlement key costs and firmware upgrade needs.

The court did not set a funding source during the meeting; magistrates signaled they will return with budget options once bids are received.