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Metropolitan Police Department (Washington, D.C.) Interview
June 9, 2000
Sgt. Stanley A. "Al" Sines
System
Structure
How many users of the system? Police? Fire?
Other services?
Sines' response to this question was detailed. First, he said there are 13
UHF and 3 VHF police repeater channels. There are also a bunch of simplex
channels. There are 3800 members of the department. Sines also
discussed other users of the radio system, primarily on the CITYWIDE
channel. The D.C. Housing Authority has 115 regular users; the U.S.
Capitol Police have 50 users; the Washington Field Office of the Secret Service
has about 100 users; the U.S. Marshals have 50 users; the Postal Inspectors have
30 users; and the FBI, although not a regular user of the system, has some units
who use the system occasionally.
Problems with too many users wanting access at a given
time?
"All the time." Sines said Mobile Data Computers (MDCs) are being
installed in the police cruisers to help alleviate this problem. The
department has purchased 477 of the computers, 300 are already installed, and
there are 450 active computers [?].
Problems with frequency allocations?
Sines said there are "no problems because I'm the frequency coordinator for
Maryland and D.C."
How many tower locations?
There are 24 tower locations. The city had 26, but lost two of the sites.
Do the tower locations provide adequate coverage of the
city?
Sines answered "yes" to this question.
System
Performance
Problems with interference?
There have been "some problems." Sines stated that it has
"not really been serious here." Most of the stations that would
cause interference on the police channels are sixty or more miles away.
Television channel 14 has caused some interference. So-called sub-audible
CTCSS tones transmitted on a frequency to prevent interference "don't
help." The television station puts out 2.8 megawatts of power,
overpowering the CTCSS tone.
Problems with missed radio calls/cutoffs?
"Rarely." Sines said that "coverage [is] pretty
good." The radio system works inside buildings with one-watt portable
radios. There are "few dead spots."
Problems in major emergency/disaster with overuse?
Sines said: "Yeah."
Problems with system failing entirely?
The console system is twenty years old. It has been replaced with a
Motorola Centracomm console.
Problems with related support systems, such as computers
and 911 services?
The 9-1-1 system is tied-in with the CAD system. If a radio console goes
down, then the department loses some of the radio system. If the LAN
system were to go down, there are still redundancies built into the
system. If the department lost all power, it would be reduced to three or
four channels. In addition to having a separate radio channel for each of
the seven police districts, the department has three tactical channels, a
Special Operations Division (SOD) channel, Command channel, and the CITYWIDE channel.
How
satisfied with the system are the dispatchers?
Sines said "half of them think it's not as good as it should
be." He noted that this often resulted from a "lack of
understanding on their parts."
How satisfied with the system are officers?
"Most of them are pretty satisfied." Sines stated that there
have been some complaints about dispatchers.
How satisfied with the system are communications
managers/support personnel?
Sines said the communications managers "gotta be happy with it."
He noted that there are improvements to be made on the old system.
Is interoperability a problem, especially in major
incidents?
There are sixty other law enforcement agencies in the District of
Columbia. Interoperability, therefore, is a "big problem."
The department works with the Capitol Police and the Park Police to put VHF
radios (the type that Capitol Police and Park Police use) in police cars in the
District. Prince George's County (a suburb in Maryland) will not
put their radio channels in Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) radios, according to
Sines. The FBI and Secret Service will not allow their channels in MPD
radios, either. The Police Mutual Aid Radio System (P-MARS) exists to
facilitate communication among the many department in the Greater Washington
area, but the patching of radio channels "does not work fast,"
according to Sines.
System Cost
How much did the current system cost?
The fifty base stations cost $750,000. The receivers cost another
$750,000. The Comparator system cost $450,000. In all, equipment
costs were about $2 million. Portable radios cost another $9.2 million,
and mobiles cost $3.1 million. Fixed end costs for the new digital radio
system will be about $8-10 million.
How much are maintenance costs per year?
Sines said it was "difficult to say." There is a staff of
fourteen in the maintenance department. The department must also buy parts
and replacement equipment. Sines estimated costs at $1.5 million per year
for everything. He said 200 portables are lost for various reasons each
year. The department, however, does not fix portables. The job is
contracted to Motorola for $200,000.
Would upgrading to a trunked system decrease maintenance costs?
Sines would like to trunk the current UHF channels, but the department cannot
obtain approval of other transmitting stations within a seventy mile radius of the District.
Adequate funding for maintenance/upgrades?
Sines said there is adequate funding for maintenance, but there is not adequate
funding for upgrades.
Is cost-benefit analysis used in determining upgrades/procurement?
"Yes, [the department is] concerned about costs." Sines said
that the "biggest concern is safety--people need to be able to talk in
buildings."
System Upgrades
Are upgrades sometimes foregone because of conflicts with
local government?
Sines said that "half the time [the department] get[s] people who don't
understand technology." Most of the time, however, they say they
"don't have money."
System Politics
Conflicts with communications managers and radio manufacturers (Motorola, GE,
etc.)?
There are some design defects in the equipment and the department is trying to
get Motorola to fix them. For example, the portable radios have a flawed
"baseplate" (the metal plate on the bottom of the radio), that
requires a
design improvement. Sines said that the department is successful at
getting things fixed "half the time." He said Motorola usually
makes "some effort to correct" the problems. Sines stated that
"Ericsson would be better at customer service."
Has the system been in the news much recently?
The system has not been in the news.
How satisfied is the public with the system?
The public does not know too much about the system. In regard to how the
media portrays the department and its radio system, Sines said the "media
distorts [the] news."
Other Notes
The Metropolitan Police Department is in the process of
soliciting bids for converting their analog UHF radio channels to digital
format. Sines noted that the digital system consultant that the department
was using did not renew its contract. For the digital system, the
department wanted to add two UHF channels and retain one VHF channel.
Also, there were complaints about poor emergency
communications during a recent Metro tunnel fire. Sines said that the
Metro Transit Police handled the incident. He commended that department,
saying it is "well-trained." The Metropolitan Police Department
handled above-ground communications only during the incident.
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