Police Radio Problems

[cruzrt]

Take a look/see at the Council meeting on June 20th. The Wethersfield Post also has a story on it, the topic was renewing the Motorola maintenance contract. Several councillors wanted further review because the agreed on service levels have not been met. (That's old news; we all have known that for some time). But, the Dem. majority voted to extend the contract "because it was too close to the June 30th expiration to risk doing anything different". Here's a very basic question: WHY WAS THIS INTRODUCED A SCANT 10 DAYS BEFORE THE EXPIRE DATE? Somebody is not doing their job. Wake up residents, wake up Councillors. The PAID town staff continually lets things like this slide. We will now be at the mercy of Motorola for another few years.

[BuckWheat]

Seeing how the whole radio boondoggle is the work of our deputy mayor, he should be held accountable this election cycle.

I'm sure that as usual the voters will have a short memory.

[oldetowne]

The radio system issue is a serious one. I hope it doesn't get swept under the rug like so many other things.

PS - Rumor I had heard was that the deputy mayor isn't running again. I'm sure that his colleagues will be held fully accountable for this.

[morganika]

I hope that it is true he's not running.

P.S. the red pepper stopped working and the poop factory is going strong. I spoke too soon.

[oldetowne]

This article was in the Advocate on July 14:

800 Mega Hurts
Wethersfield´s public safety radio system has chronic static problems. Will the FCC fix them?

by Adam Bulger - July 14, 2005

MULTI-AD SERVICES ILLUSTRATION


On Sept. 8, 2001, Wethersfield upgraded its public safety radio gear. At the time, the town was using a system that was more than 20 years old, described by press reports as too out of date to handle the town's safety needs.
"It was built as part of our new police facility," Wethersfield's Mayor Russell A. Morin said of the new system. "Our other radio system was antiquated. We were told that with the new system we would have something like 95 percent coverage."

At the recommendation of a telecommunications consultant hired by the town, the Wethersfield police and public safety scanners were established on a $3 million 800MHz system. The consultant, James Medlock, cited the presence of I-91 in Wethersfield and the heavily trafficked Silas Deane Highway as reasons for the town's needs for the 800MHz frequency system. Ultimately, the town accepted a bid to build its system from the Motorola Company.

The 800MHz frequency is meant to be dedicated to public safety concerns, but critics have said that interference on the signal from commercial use has been a chronic problem. Unfortunately, those criticisms held true for Wethersfield.

"We put up the tower and for about four or five months we had no issues. Then we started to have static," Morin said.

Modern 800 MHz systems are computerized, and they enable users to quickly bounce around frequencies to find open channels, meaning that finding open telecommunications lines should be faster. There have been reports of interference on the 800 MHz frequency since 1999. Allegedly, cell phones -- particularly Nextel phones -- were cutting into the 800 signal.

Wethersfield town documents indicate that interference in the form of static has been a chronic problem with the town's system. The Wethersfield police chief's August 2004 monthly report to the town manager noted system strength loss and disabled channels. According to the report "the police and fire departments continue to report major static problems on all channels at all times of the day."

On Christmas Eve, 2004, the Wethersfield system experienced an unexplained 23-minute system failure. Needless to say, it caused much hand-wringing.

"We didn't pay $3 million to have a failure on our system,'' town manager Bonnie Therrien told the Hartford Courant after the communication breakdown. W ethersfield police resorted to communicating with mobile phones tuned to a different frequency.

The vote to renew the town's $42,000 service agreement with Motorola was brought before the Wethersfield Town Council June 20. The council was split down party lines about renewing the contract, with the council's three Republicans against and its five Democrats for the renewal. It was ultimately approved.

Republican council member Kitch Breen Czernicki told the Wethersfield Post that Motorola had "not held up their part of the bargain."

When I spoke with Mayor Morin, he stressed that while the system had serious issues, Motorola's service -- which was what was up for renewal -- had always been good. Morin attributed the rancor to partisan politics. "It's an election year and people want to make political hay," he said.

Nationally, the problems with the 800 MHz frequency have been so widespread that the federal government took notice. In November 2001, Nextel communications filed a "white paper" with the Federal Communications Commission for a nationwide reform of the 800 MHz band.

On June 27 of this year, the rebanding began. Nextel -- whose cell phone system is believed to be causing the interference -- is ponying up to $2.8 billion to make the switch. According to a joint press release from the FCC and Nextel, locations such as the "Northeastern United States, Northern California, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Colorado and regions around the greater Chicago area" were beginning the reconfiguration process. All 800Mhz public-safety system users nationwide are required to undergo reconfiguration. Because of a lack of uniformity in system configurations this is going to be more difficult than it sounds.

"There is no typical system. We design specific systems based on each specific agency's requirements," Motorola spokesman Steve Gorecki said.

"We have to continue to negotiate (with Motorola) because public safety is the most important thing we do," Morin said. "We've been told that the rebanding will help. If it doesn't, we're going to be aggressive about looking at our options."

[SenatorBlutarsky]

oldetowne, excellent post! When this was first proposed the people "in charge" knew this system was bogus, but refused to listen to the local experts and charged that they didn't know what they were talking about.

Everything that our fellow taxpayers said is right on the mark and yet our elected officials still remain with their heads below sand level.

You would think that once the wheel had been invented you go with it, but not in Wethersfield, where the wheel is still square.

[JudgeSmaels]

After watching the council meeting on Aug. 15th, and hearing the BS from the rep of Motorola what a bill of goods we were sold.

We should of known Nextel would interfere? I thought they were the "experts" and should have told us.

The bottom line is our Deputy Mayor wanted this system, against local opposition and now were paying and will be paying for many years to come.

Thanks CHIEF!