AUBURN — Beneath a layer of radio static, beeps and whistles, an Androscoggin County sheriff’s deputy called for help.

As Sheriff Guy Desjardins played the recording of an officer at the scene of a fatal traffic crash that happened Monday in Greene, he leaned forward to accentuate his warning.

“As sheriff, I just cannot allow this to continue,” he said. “I can’t. Not for the safety of my officers, not for the safety of the public. And I understand there’s a big political issue here. I know that. But at the end of the day, I want my dispatch center in operation or I want it closed.”

A few minutes later, he got what he asked for.

In a 3-0 vote, county commissioners approved spending more than $97,000 to fund two new radio consoles for the county dispatch center. The 1980s-era electronics will be replaced with a modern Motorola system meant to improve communication with deputies in the field.

The decision follows years of debate over whether the county should run its own dispatch center or contract with another agency to answer emergency calls and communicate with its deputies.

County Commissioner Elaine Makas insisted that the approval wasn’t part of that discussion.

“This part is not political,” Makas said. “The fact of the matter is that we need this equipment.” A quick vote followed.

The entire meeting, hastily scheduled Thursday as an emergency meeting, lasted about 30 minutes. Most of it was taken up by Desjardins’ recordings.

The incidents he highlighted included calls from Mechanic Falls and Turner, as well as from Greene. At times, such as with Monday’s accident, deputies’ radios seemed unusable either to talk with dispatchers or with other officers.

In each case, static and faint voices were followed by dispatchers asking for officers to repeat their messages. In most cases, the dispatchers eventually reached officers on their cellphones.

“Our system is degrading as each day passes,” Desjardins said.

The Sheriff’s Department has been requesting new radio equipment for years, but it has been put off while the larger dispatching issue has been debated.

Pleas go back to at least 2007, said Capt. Ray Lafrance, who leads the county patrol division.

The consoles coordinate radio signals between deputies across the county and dispatchers in Auburn. They also handle radio traffic between the dispatchers and several small-town police and fire departments, including those in Mechanic Falls, Livermore Falls and Sabattus.

They’ve been breaking down at an alarming rate.

Technicians have been hired to analyze the system, track problems and fix what they can.

“It’s a little bit like working on a used car,” Desjardins said. “When you fix one problem, you find two more that come up. They’re continually working on it.”

Earlier this month, representatives of Maine Radio, which has installed systems across the state, issued a statement questioning officer safety. The incident on Monday led Desjardins to push commissioners to make an immediate decision, he said.

Replacement equipment could arrive in a month, Lafrance said.

Money for the new consoles is expected to be taken from a $100,000 county contingency fund.

dhartill@sunjournal.com

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