LOCAL
RADIO SYSTEM PUTS AGENCIES ON SAME WAVE
Chris Barker Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
01/16/2001
The Palm Beach Post
FINAL
1B
(Copyright 2001)
The light blue car had Texas plates and 4 to 6 men inside. A shopper at a
Palm Beach Gardens department store had a scary hunch: were these escaped
convicts from a Texas jail who killed a police officer on Christmas Eve?
The answer may never be known, as efforts by several law enforcement agencies
to find and stop the car proved unsuccessful despite a several-hour search. But
the Jan. 4 event underscored an important communications need, said Col. Bruce
Frumoff of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
Because the agencies - including the sheriff's office, Palm Beach Gardens
police, Juno police and North Palm Beach police - have different radio systems,
coordinating the search was difficult, he said. Officers had to relay messages
to officers from other departments through dispatchers, a time-consuming
process.
The scheduled unveiling of a $28.5 million communications network in April
may be the first step in solving that problem.
"These types of radio systems permit greater opportunities for direct
communication between the field units of these agencies," Frumoff said.
"That's the greatest benefit."
The new system was designed by Motorola and required years of planning by
engineers, law enforcement officials and county staffers. It will be tested in
April and should be in full service by June, officials said. The old,
lower-frequency system will still be accessible in case there are any problems.
Ten transmission sites will broadcast signals on the new network, which
should provide better radio coverage to deputies than what is now available,
said Clark Curtis, project manager of the 800- megahertz trunked radio system.
Poor signal reception in large buildings like hospitals - a downside reported
by some users of similar high-frequency systems - can be eliminated by placing
signal-boosting amplifiers in certain locations, county officials said.
Future phases not included in the current budget will include a similar
upgrade of Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue by June 2002 and of the public works
department by July 2003, Curtis said. In addition, the county system will be
compatible with a $300 million high- frequency state project that upgraded
Florida Highway Patrol communications, he said.
Fire-rescue will spend $4.5 million on new handheld radios alone as part of
the new system, said Battalion Chief Nigel Baker. But maintenance costs likely
will be less because the current system is 20 years old, he added.
A consortium of 30 municipalities within the county is soliciting bids from
several companies for its own high-frequency system, with a goal of buying one
that will allow police officers to talk to county deputies and paramedics.
"There's been so much change in technology, we felt we wanted to look at
all of the options that are out there," said Wayne English, executive
director of the group.
The group, which has signed an agreement to share costs, hopes to have its
system up and running within 18 months.
Several different systems could "talk" to deputies using the
county's Motorola system thanks to a raft of new technology that's become
available in the last year, English said.
Some systems will allow police radios and mobile laptop computers mounted in
patrol cars to operate interchangeably, cutting down on costs, said Richard
Olson, city manager for Greenacres. The city, a member of the consortium,
attempted to switch to a $450,000 high- frequency Motorola system in 1998 but
failed after officers couldn't communicate in some parts of the city.
"Right now there is, in my opinion, better technology out there,"
Olson said.
Olson said the Motorola system failed because coverage provided by West Palm
Beach's 800-MHz system was insufficient to cover Greenacres. Some of the new
systems allow for the use of existing radios, another cost-cutting bonus, he
added.
chris_barker@pbpost.com