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Thursday, July 19, 2001
Parker County, Texas works to end radio problems [Source: Star-Telegram] By Gale M. Bradford Special to the Star-Telegram WEATHERFORD -- There are dead spots in Parker County -- areas in the 900 square miles of varied terrain where sheriff's deputies, firefighters and other emergency personnel cannot communicate with the dispatcher or one another. Those dead spots could kill you, said Deputy Randy Branum, who has been in at least two life- threatening situations in two years because he couldn't raise help on his radio. To complicate matters, dispatchers have separate pieces of equipment and microphones to communicate with different county agencies, including firefighters, sheriff's deputies and constables. County officials agree that an updated and expanded dispatcher system is the answer to a problem that endangers the lives of public servants and residents. Officials thought they had resolved at least some of the problems in September when county commissioners purchased a system to consolidate dispatcher equipment. And county commissioners budgeted $500,000 this year to install more antennas and another communication tower to help eliminate the dead spots. However, the new dispatcher system hasn't been installed, and most of the $500,000 hasn't been spent. Initially, Parker County commissioners and the sheriff argued about who should operate the dispatcher system. And, last week, Texas Rangers seized the equipment, accusing a vendor of misrepresenting what the equipment can do. For example, according to the affidavit submitted by the Rangers to get a search warrant, the two consoles are supposed to provide 18 channels each, but can only accommodate up to 12. Two months ago, commissioners advertised for bids to add another tower and antennas, but no bids were submitted. Now the county is following a recommendation to hire a consultant to draw up better specifications for the project, further delaying it. Emergency personnel say they are frustrated and in peril. "It's just hit or miss," Branum said of the county's communication system. "You never know if your radios will work. We make jokes about smoke signals being more effective." During a routine traffic stop in 1999, Branum said, he called the dispatcher but couldn't raise a response. Branum said he walked up to the truck anyway, and the driver sped off. "The truck fishtailed and slid sideways and knocked me into the highway," he said. "I got up and was in pursuit of him for at least five miles." When the pickup pulled into a driveway, several people surrounded Branum's patrol car. He said he pulled his gun, arrested the pickup driver and took him to jail. "And the dispatcher never even knew that I'd made a traffic stop," Branum said. "That's how bad the communication system is." In the summer of 2000, Branum said, an intoxicated man fought when the deputy tried to handcuff him. Branum said he tussled with the man unassisted for 20 minutes before he received help. "Every few minutes, when I could get him pinned down good enough, I'd grab my radio, hold it high for better elevation, and yell for help, but dispatch still didn't hear," Branum said. A Parker County constable traveling about three miles away heard Branum's distress call and responded, he said. Last year, Parker County commissioners appropriated $53,000 to purchase dispatcher equipment but decided that the county administration, not the sheriff, should operate the system. Brown disagreed. This year, the Commissioners Court changed directions and decided to leave the dispatching duties to the sheriff. When workers began installation, however, they discovered that they had the wrong equipment. Desperate, Brown said he was willing to work with that. Acting on tips that the system didn't meet specifications, the Texas Rangers seized the equipment last week and began a criminal investigation of the vendor, Communication Sales and Service. Named in the warrant is Charles Beard, who operates the company. Beard's daughter-in-law, Melinda, told commissioners Monday that the 50-year-old Weatherford business engaged in no deceptive practices. She accused elected officials of spending tax money on a "witch hunt and character assassination for personal gain." The company supplies much of the county's communications equipment, from personal pagers to police radios. The company also contracts to maintain the equipment. Communication Sales has been called in several times to modify the equipment to get rid of the dead spots. In the past year, Charles Beard has told county commissioners that the dead spots have been eliminated, but county emergency personnel say something different. County Judge Mark Riley said in a recent interview, "I have personally ridden with sheriff's deputies to the northeast part of the county, and they have taken me to the dead spots where they cannot communicate. And, it's not just one or two spots. ... We've been told that they don't exist anymore, and that's just not true." County workers improvise when their equipment fails them. Deputy Tim Oglesby said that during a six- or seven-minute fight with a suspect, he lost his gun and couldn't raise help over the radio. "It got to the point I just hit him with [the radio] just as hard as I could, and it worked better as a weapon than it did as a radio," Oglesby said. Fire Chief George Teague said firefighters often carry personal cellphones because they can't be sure that their radios will work. Parker County agencies are a major part of the area's disaster response plan, but cities can't always be sure that they can contact the Sheriff's Department and other emergency personnel, Teague said. "If we had a disaster, there's not a channel that Parker County could go to to talk to each other -- and talk clearly so we could understand each other," he said. "That's a necessity." Tuesday, July 17, 2001
City's $78M upgrade paves way to interagency talk [Source: Arizona Daily Star] Public-safety communication By M. Scot Skinner ARIZONA DAILY STAR  Dispatcher Deanna Jack works multiple computer monitors as she routes Tucson police officers to calls from across the city. A federal program that studies how public-safety agencies communicate with each other rates Arizona and 27 other states as "developing," but Tucson is actually ahead of the curve, a city technology official and a national expert agreed. That's because Tucson is planning a $78 million upgrade of its communication systems and facilities that should be fully operational within five years. One goal is seamless radio communication between Tucson public-safety agencies and neighboring agencies. This becomes important in major situations or vehicle pursuits that go in and out of jurisdictions, authorities said. While it's too early to say whether agencies such as the Pima County Sheriff's Department will sign on as partners in communication efforts, the upgrade is being approached with the inter-agency ability in mind, said Jim Perry, the city's administrator for technical planning and research. Currently, public-safety agencies in the Tucson area cannot effectively communicate with each other because of the different radio systems and frequencies they each use. Personnel in the field needing to contact another agency must ask dispatchers to call the other agency and relay information. A new "report card" by the Public Safety Wireless Network categorizes each of the 50 states as either Mature, Established, Developing or New. The 4-year-old public-safety program, which works with agencies at all levels of government to improve radio communication between agencies, is a joint project of the Departments of Justice and the Treasury. Only Michigan and Delaware are rated as Mature, meaning they have achieved the ability for agencies to communicate with each other on a statewide basis. Using common standards, the system allows officers and paramedics to communicate via radio with other jurisdictions. The widespread inability of agencies to efficiently communicate with each other was highlighted during the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, Perry said. More than 100 runners were used to relay messages between agencies, a method described by Perry as "Civil War" technology. "That really opened people's eyes and was a catalyst to getting these studies moving,'' he said. "This is really a nationwide problem,'' said Rick Murphy, the co-program manager of the Public Safety Wireless Network. "But Tucson is definitely ahead of the game in terms of planning and preparation.'' Even though they're limited in how they communicate with each other, Tucson-area public-safety agencies have the ability to turn on a signal repeater called "tri-band." The tri-band allows for the limited connection of the different VHF, UHF and 800megahertz bands that are used by public-safety agencies. Perry said the tri-band is a stopgap measure that has to be turned on at a communications center and then officers in the field must turn to that frequency. Tucson's analog communication system has parts that are hitting the 20-year mark, Perry said. It's becoming increasingly difficult to buy parts for it, and when it breaks down, it must be repaired immediately by city employees. The importance, after all, can scarcely be overstated, Perry said. "We're not talking about a taxicab communication system,'' he said. "This is a lifeline.'' Lt. Mike Sacco, in charge of technical support for the Sheriff's Department, said the county bought a communication system in 1999, replacing a 10-year-oldsystem that was not Y2K-compliant. "The problem is that because of proprietary technology, you buy a system and it's not compatible with other systems,'' he said. When the county bought the new system, officials intended to use it for many years, Sacco said. That could complicate efforts to join with Tucson's upgraded, digital system. "The stumbling blocks are the cost and timing,'' he said. The state leaders in terms of communicating with each other are Phoenix and Mesa, which will begin operating on common frequencies by the end of 2002,Sacco said. The Tucson upgrade will include a new communications facility and "whatever it takes to move information through the city, such as microwave and fiber-optics hardware, plus the transmitters and receivers,'' Perry said. In addition to the Fire and Police departments, the system will integrate communication with other city departments, including solid-waste management, water and transportation. |