AUBURN, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- The Androscoggin County Sheriff's Department has been having a lot of trouble with its radios in recent months.

The department does not think anyone is jamming the system, but deputies and dispatchers have no idea what's going on.
The concern for people at the sheriff's office is that deputies may call in during an emergency and not know that the dispatcher isn't hearing them.
Radio service has never been perfect in the county, but Captain Raymond Lafrance said that in the past, deputies had a sense of where the dead spots were.
Now they have no clue. So radio technicians are doing a top to bottom investigation of the system from the radio towers, to the central dispatch center itself.
The radios the county is using are about 20 years old. The sheriff's department would like to replace them, but right now there's a debate going on at the county about whether to move to a new dispatch center or perhaps consolidate with another nearby dispatch. The department is hoping technicians can figure out what's going on, at least giving them a temporary fix.

NEWS CENTER