Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Phantom haunts police radio bands

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 03:28:05 -0500

Article Last Updated:
Wednesday, January 29, 2003 - 5:32:27 PM MST

Phantom haunts police radio bands
By DAN BARKER

Times Staff Writer

Morgan County Communications Center board
members voted to take law channel frequencies out
of all non-emergency or law enforcement vehicles or
sites Tuesday after a "phantom radio operator" has
been heard on police monitors.

They also took a long look at a Brush Fire Department request for
notification of accidents and approved payments for upgrades at the
center.

Phantom

Someone has found a way to broadcast onto three law and the public
works frequencies in the county and has talked trash over them on
several occasions, said Director Pam Monsees.

That includes saying "officer down, officer down," she said. "That's not
funny."

That prompted Morgan County Sheriff Jim Crone to move the board have
the law channels removed from all non-law county radios except for
those such as command staff, critical incident teams and the Office of
Emergency Management.

Monsees said she had already put that in motion for county vehicles.

This would be done as part of regular preventive maintenance rather
than expecting the frequencies to be removed at once, Crone said.

Monsees said she is pretty sure whoever is doing this is in town.

BFD

There was a good deal of confusion about what the Brush Fire
Department wants from the communications center as BFD Fire Chief Ken
Temple and Fort Morgan Fire Chief Mike Kirkendall came to speak to the
board.

Temple said his department is asking dispatchers to send out his
volunteers at the same time as they send an ambulance when there is
an injury accident. Sometimes fire personnel have gotten on scene late
and had complaints as a result.

However, a proposal sent to the center suggested BFD be called to any
scene involving chest pain, cardiac emergencies or motor vehicle
accidents (of any kind) where a highway runs through a section of the
county or a city. Sometimes those are simply fender-benders and that
concerned Fort Morgan Chief of Police Keith Kuretich.

Monsees explained the dispatchers need to have a uniform system for
alerting fire departments, and if they called out a fire department such as
that in Fort Morgan, dozens of vehicles could arrive. This could cause a
safety issue of its own since all these vehicles are trying to get there for
a non-emergency.

Kuretich agreed, saying his officers are on-scene quickly and can call in
fire personnel if needed.

However, Kirkendall pointed out the situation in Brush is not the same as
in Fort Morgan. Ambulance service, while vastly improved over the past
few years, is quicker in Fort Morgan than outlying areas like Brush and
Wiggins, he said.

That means there is a difference to be taken into account in dispatching.

The real issue is time. There have been cases when Brush firemen got to
a scene 15 minutes later because they were not called when the
ambulance was. Then the department catches the grief, Temple said.

Morgan County Ambulance Service Director Bob Walter said he would like
to see fire departments called out in all injury accidents. Sometimes it is
impossible to deal with one with just two people.

Temple said that is essentially what he had in mind and agreed with
Monsees to come back with a clearer proposal.

CBI

Information systems manager Pat Morgan said problems setting up an
Internet system to send in police and sheriff's reports to the state is not
just a problem from Computer Information Systems Inc. Every part of the
system from CIS to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to the
communications center has contributed to the difficulty.

Right now the sheriff's department is a test agency sending in on-line
data. Until that finally clears 100 percent error free, the system cannot
be certified for sending in regular reports, she said.

When that is finished, then each other law agency will have to do the
same. This will replace sending in written reports, which will no longer
accept other modes of information, Morgan said.

She said she hopes a test of the whole system will certify the county in
the next two weeks.

Other business

In other matters the board voted to:

Retain Log Lane Chief of Police Larry Mueller as chairman.

Elect Lt. Jerry White and County Commissioner Mike Harms co-vice
chairmen.

Pay $1,012 for a CCIC hook-up.

Pay $1,200 for an upgrade on a maintenance agreement which provides
24-hour replacement in case computer security is breached.

Authorize $15,877 to put in Windows 2000 and SQL 2000 at the center
after notification older software will no longer be serviced and another
$5,375 for installation and loaner equipment for the job.

http://www.fortmorgantimes.com/Stories/0,1413,164%257E8312%257E1144766,00.html
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