The Office of Special Counsel has credited disclosures by three Forest Service employees with prompting the agency to make “significant improvements” to emergency communications systems for law enforcement officers in Georgia and South Carolina national forests.

“Three police whistleblowers told the OSC that the radios provided by the FS did not contain the frequencies necessary to contact local sheriff’s departments in the performance of their duties. As a result, they were unable to transmit important information to local police departments or other FS personnel in the event of an emergency unless they traveled to a location with better reception,” the OSC said.

The OSC forwarded the disclosures to the Department of Agriculture, which confirmed “significant deficiencies” in the performance of radios in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest in Georgia and the Francis Marion National Forest in South Carolina, it said in a statement.

In response, the Forest Service “provided police officers in these national forests with satellite phones for emergency communications. And in the months that followed, the Forest Service installed radios in all police vehicles that could use the frequencies of state and local conventional radio systems and gained access to the appropriate frequencies through agreements with local police departments. As of June 2024, USDA confirmed that police officers in these two national forests have radio connectivity in all priority areas within their jurisdiction,” it said.

The OSC said: “As we saw with the large Park Fire in California and the numerous wildfires in national forests across the Northwest, U.S. Forest Service employees manage dangerous situations in remote areas. It is critical that the Forest Service provide effective emergency communications to ensure the safety of its employees and visitors to our national forests.”