By Stacie Oulton
Denver Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 21, 2001 - LAKEWOOD - The fate of Columbine High School teacher Dave Sanders might have been different if police radio technology unveiled Monday had been available two years ago.
During mass disasters such as the school shooting, police and rescuers from different departments frequently haven't been able to communicate over a critical lifeline - the police radio. That happened at Columbine, but a new system spreading across the Denver metro area, the state and the country will change that.
The computer-based system allows departments with incompatible radio systems finally to connect. Having that tool might have made a difference for Sanders, who died after waiting hours for rescuers to reach him in the confusion following the shootings.
"My own view is it probably would have made a difference. We certainly would have had a faster response time," said U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Ignacio.
Campbell secured $300,000 of federal money to pay for the new system installed at the Lakewood Police Department, which allows 12 metro-area drug task forces, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal departments to communicate over the radio as they are making drug busts.
Lakewood's system is not the first, but officials say it's the next step in completing a statewide linkup by next summer. Denver and Arapahoe County sheriff's offices have had similar systems since last year, and the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office is purchasing two. Arapahoe's system was used last summer during the Hi Meadow wildfire.
The money for Lakewood's system came through the President's Office of National Drug Control Policy, while other departments received grants from the U.S. Department of Justice. Some 2,500 departments across the country have received federal money for the new systems.
Al Brandenstein, the chief scientist for the drug-control office, said he was motivated to work to solve the radio problem after reading about the problems at Columbine. With such a system in place, SWAT teams that waited to enter the school could have received better information and Sanders "could have been saved," he said.
The systems - sort of an electronic version of the old-fashioned switchboard - are seen as a way to speed connections among departments as a broader, statewide digital radio system is put in place. Agencies throughout the state are being encouraged to switch to digital radios, which can also provide connections between police departments.
Still, Arapahoe Sheriff's Capt. Bob Lauderdale and others said the new system unveiled Monday won't be able to replace the need for the statewide digital radio system.