Metro; Metro Desk
Bad Radios: Grand Jury Tuning In Panel has been looking into complaints about
the $80-million system used by firefighters and police. Staff, technicians say
it has improved.
JACK LEONARD; RICHARD MAROSI
TIMES STAFF WRITERS
11/04/2000
Los Angeles Times
Orange County Edition
B-1
Copyright 2000 / The Times Mirror Company
Orange County grand jurors are reviewing complaints by firefighters and
police officers that a highly touted $80-million radio system for county
emergency crews isn't working properly.
At a meeting earlier this week at Irvine police headquarters, a half-dozen
officers told grand jurors that many lack confidence in the 800 megahertz
technology, said Sgt. Dave Mihalik, president of the Irvine Police Assn.
Police officers complain that the new radios sometimes fail to pick up
calls from dispatchers, produce garbled messages, delay communications and don't
work well inside some major buildings.
County staff and technicians from Motorola, which is installing the system,
have worked for months to fix the glitches, which some officers insist have
occasionally put their lives at risk.
But while formal complaints have fallen dramatically since the summer, some
police officers say their colleagues are so frustrated that they have simply
stopped reporting the problems.
"I think it's still as serious as it was in the beginning," Mihalik
said. "I'm glad that our concerns were heard."
Costa Mesa City Manager Allan L. Roeder, who chairs a county committee
overseeing the project, said he spoke about the communications project to
members of a grand jury subcommittee last month.
Roeder said jurors asked him about officer complaints--particularly involving
radio failures inside buildings--after reading newspaper reports about the
problems.
The current radio system does not guarantee coverage inside many major
structures, including shopping malls, hospitals and high-rise officer towers,
according to Motorola officials.
Meanwhile, county officials have noted significant improvements in radio
coverage ever since Motorola fixed faulty equipment that had been used to test
some of the system's transmitters.
"We have a pretty good sense that it was a major contributor to the
problems we were having," Roeder said.
So far, only officers in Irvine, Tustin and Anaheim are using the new radio
network. County officials delayed construction of the system for more than five
months this year following complaints byusers.
Police officers in Irvine said they continue to have difficulty sending and
receiving calls while working in the Irvine Spectrum Entertainment Center.
A Motorola spokeswoman said company officials are unaware of the grand jury's
inquiry but believe their radio technology is sound. Early "glitches"
sometimes arise while building sophisticated networks but are usually resolved
quickly, said Motorola's Pat Sturmon.