Police, firefighters must wait two years to replace aging radio system

by Mark Celender
Staff Writer

Police officers and firefighters say their lives are jeopardized on an almost daily basis because of deficiencies in Montgomery County's archaic emergency radio systems.

"I'm here today just for luck," said police officer Elizabeth Cornett, recalling how she lost radio communications for backup a few years ago while chasing after a suspected killer near Burtonsville.

Cornett was among nearly a dozen police, firefighters and county officials gathered in Rockville Wednesday to discuss plans for a new 800 MHz emergency radio system, estimated to cost $50 million.

But while police and firefighters detailed the dangers created by inadequacies with the current radio systems, county officials said it could be two years before the new system is up and running.

"We will probably start installing the system in eight to 10 months," said Dennis Rooney, program manager in the county's Department of Information Systems and Telecommunications. "But it will be two years before all the components are in place before [the new system] can operate in the whole county."

Until then, the county's public safety employees must continue to use radio systems installed in the 1960s and 1970s.

The problems with those systems are many, county officials say, from overcrowded radio channels to an inability to reach geographical regions and building structures.

Cornett recalled how she was in the heat of a car chase with a man who had just killed a woman and stabbed a man, and had taken his estranged girlfriend hostage.

Cornett tried to radio for backup to give her location, but for eight to 10 minutes, she said, her radio was silent.

"I keyed my mike -- nothing. Dead air. No one to communicate. By now I'm cursing. I would've made a sailor blush," she said.

Prince George's police officers were able to catch up with the suspect and shot him on the scene, but not after he sliced the throat of his estranged girlfriend.

"And this could happen any day," said Lt. William O'Toole, spokesman for Montgomery police.

He said officers routinely run into radio communication problems with neighboring jurisdictions such as Prince George's County.

O'Toole recalled an incident in which a Prince George's officer was in a car chase that crossed into Montgomery County.

Department policy prohibits Montgomery's officers from pursuing a car chase unless a violent felony has been committed.

Montgomery officers witnessing the chase were unable to radio the Prince George's officer in pursuit, O'Toole said, so they could not immediately join in the chase.

"The Prince George's officer was left high and dry without help until we could confirm it was a bank robbery," he said.

Tom Carr, a district chief for the county's Department of Fire and Rescue Services, said his people have had similar problems.

He said Montgomery and Prince George's routinely help each other with fire and ambulance calls, but their communications are hampered by aging radio systems.

"The problems are day in and day out," Carr said.

He noted that a four-alarm fire two weeks ago in Rockville also had tied up all of the fire and rescue radio channels. Had there been another major fire, Carr said, radio communications would have been jammed.

For more than a decade the county has been considering replacing its emergency radio systems, but not until December did it wrap up a $39 million deal with Motorola.

Rooney said the total costs will be closer to $50 million because other work in addition to Motorola's services will be needed, such as running fiber optic cable to broadcast sites, and an ongoing consultant contract with another firm, TRW.

Sgt. Bruce Blair, who has headed the police department's effort to replace the radio system for the past five years, said he does not expect problems with installing the new digital radio systems in police cars.

The Gazette reported two weeks ago that auditors found scores of police cars were sitting for more than a year before contractors could install radios and emergency lights and sirens.

Blair said part of that problem was two contractors were to make the installations, and the work was not coordinated.

Rooney said the county is negotiating with a vendor who will install the new 800 MHz radios within a fixed time. He would not name the vendor.

Blair said the vendor was chosen from three who had bid on the job.

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