Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Inability to communicate endangers police

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 02 Jul 2003 13:17:27 -0400

Inability to communicate endangers police

RON KARAFIN/Courier-Post
Radio communications between police and firefighters has taken on added
significance following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. This is one of two
antenna towers at the Camden County Communications Center in Lindenwold.

Wednesday, July 2, 2003

Second of two parts

By JASON NARK and JASON LAUGHLIN
Courier-Post Staff

Collingswood police officer Michael Taulane barreled down the side streets of
Camden in pursuit of a stolen vehicle just before noon Aug. 10, 1997.

It wasn't the first or last time Taulane's work led him to Camden - the
11-year-veteran said three-quarters of his chases wind up there.

But during each one he faces a lack of direct, real-time radio communications with
the Camden Police Department.

This problem is the most pressing of several that weaken the effectiveness of
police communications in Camden County.

"I don't think there's a bigger issue in the country," said Toni Finley, managing
editor for the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials Publications.

"Interoperability is something we address nearly every month. It's huge."

Problems with interoperability - the ability of one department or agency to
communicate with another - also prevent police officers from speaking directly to
firefighters within their own municipality.

And looming on the horizon is the potential obsolescence of the very frequencies
used by police.
Digital television is springing up nationwide on the same frequencies used by
police on the county system. Just last summer a digital station near Boston
effectively wiped out police communications from the field to the Camden County
Communications Center in Lindenwold. Experts say that kind of interference could
only get worse as more digital stations crop up.

A three-week investigation by the Courier-Post included interviews with 16 fire
and police officials, national communications experts, and local and national
politicians.

A review of 150 pages of county documents found that officials at the county
Department of Public Safety and the communications center in Lindenwold knew about
problems, including interoperability issues. The problems

Communications center officials point to a slew of obstacles - funding, a lack of
available frequencies, and political bickering between local fire and police
departments.

"It's a slow process," said Camden County Chief of Communications Charles Lezenby.
"The unavailability of good radio frequencies is the biggest thing we're up
against."

No one denies the system's weaknesses should be addressed - permanently or
temporarily.

Herb Steelman, the director of Camden County Public Safety, said the county has
set specific goals through a three-phase, $460,000 study.

"We would like to get police, fire and EMS to be able to communicate when it's
needed and to operate at maximum efficiency," Steelman said.

Interoperability is an issue for every department on Camden County's 500 megahertz
dispatch system.

It's a problem that has spread beyond the borders of Camden County. The same
problems have appeared from Philadelphia to Ground Zero on Sept. 11, 2001.

The problem is critical in New Jersey, said Ron Hasareth, director of automated
frequency coordination for the Association of Public-Safety Communications
Officials Publications.

"It's probably the most congested for public safety than any other state in the
country," he said. County's islands

For local police officers patrolling the streets, the consequences of interference
and a lack of interoperability are real.

"Being able to contact them is the most important thing," said Taulane, who spent
20 minutes in Camden that Sunday in 1997 before continuing into Pennsylvania and
Delaware.

"I'm really thankful that no one's been hurt - but it's going to happen," he said.

The 500 megahertz radios in Collingswood patrol cars aren't interoperable with
Camden's 800 MHz system. Officers say Camden often doesn't notice chases until a
pursued car and Collingswood cruiser speed past them.

Collingswood is one of 30 departments using the 500 MHz system the county
installed in 1989. Camden and Cherry Hill use their own 800 MHz system while
departments in Pennsauken, Gloucester Township, Winslow Township and Voorhees all
use their own separate dispatch. Gloucester Township can switch to frequencies
used by the county.

"I can't talk to Camden, Cherry Hill or Pennsauken. We can talk to Chesilhurst but
not Camden. People just assume we can," said Collingswood Police Chief Thomas
Garrity.

For a town on the county system to relay messages to Camden, a four-person,
three-step process is needed. It is a particular problem for Collingswood.

1. A Collingswood officer radios Camden County dispatch in Lindenwold to report a
chase heading into Camden via Haddon Avenue.

2. The dispatcher in Lindenwold receives the call and picks up a phone to dial
Camden city dispatch and report the incident.

3. The Camden City dispatcher radios to a patrol unit on the street to report the
incident.

By the time the incident is reported to the Camden officer, the chase could have
progressed to a different location.

"Sometimes it takes 30-90 seconds - that's too long when you're doing this type of
stuff," Garrity said.

Camden city's 800 MHz system became fully operable in 2000. While Camden had
issues with staffing and training in the past, the city's equipment is optimal.

Camden's interim police chief, Edwin Figueroa, understands the need for an
improved countywide system.

"It's virtually impossible to talk to one another and in police work what's most
important is being able to communicate," he said.

Figueroa said every officer in Camden carries an 800 MHz-receptive portable radio
costing approximately $3,300. The price for portable and mobile radios could fall
on each individual department, he said.

"Eight hundred (MHz) is a much more sophisticated network," he said. "If they
(Camden County) decide to change, everybody has to buy radios and they don't come
cheap."

Figueroa, who's held his position since March, has not been contacted by county
officials about making their systems interoperable.

Lezenby, however, said talks with Camden have been warming up.

In November 2002, several Camden County officials requested a report from Camden
City Police Department administrative analyst Bill Lutz on the feasibility of a
countywide 800 MHz system. In his report, Lutz estimated a county move to 800 MHz
would cost $5.5 million. For the optimal system, using state-of-the-art, digitally
trunked equipment, Lutz put the bill at $11.5 million.

Many departments address the problems themselves by purchasing Nextel two-way
pagers out of their own budgets. Collingswood spent $300 apiece for police
scanners so they could monitor Camden.

Some smaller departments, such as Haddonfield, save money by being on the county
system.

"Haddonfield used to be an island surrounded in a sea of blue," said Police Chief
Rick Tsonis, whose department joined in 2001. "Now we're in a county system. We're
part of the family."

Tsonis estimated his department spent $500,000 a year to maintain an independent
police dispatch center before it joined central communications.

The departments on the countywide system are broken into five frequency zones and
one countywide zone that includes the Merchantville Police Department, and the
county's park police, prosecutor's office, sheriff's department and department of
corrections.

Gloucester Township's police department has the best of both worlds. It maintains
its own dispatch and communications center at the police department in the 500 MHz
bandwidth, said township police Capt. Ed Smith. His department has a direct line
to the county's central communications center if Gloucester Township officers need
to respond to other towns, he said.

Gloucester Township has built a high degree of interoperability into the system,
Smith said. Part of the reason his department can afford to be separate from the
rest of the county's communications is its size, he said.

"There's times when Gloucester Township has more units patrolling than an entire
zone in central," he said. "We rarely have need for backup." A global situation

Rep. Rob Andrews, D-N.J., asked the FCC to intervene after the digital signal of
WCVB in Needham, Mass., interfered with communications from the field to Camden
County's communications in Lindenwold.

The county's 500 MHz frequency experienced significant interference from the
station last summer and Andrews eventually persuaded FCC officials to monitor
interference problems. It has not occurred since then but the threat still exists,
county officials said.

"We couldn't really make them stop either way," said Lezenby of the television's
digital signal.

The widespread lack of interoperability in the county and outside is the larger
issue, Andrews said.

"Someone who works for Raytheon told me something very interesting this week. He
said when he met with Tom Ridge (Office of Homeland Security adviser), he said the
one thing that keeps him up at night is interoperability," said Andrews. `Major
problem'

"It's a major, major, major problem. It's a global situation."

Andrews said the Office of Homeland Security could provide the groundwork for
solving the county's problems.

"The way this problem is ultimately going to get solved is for the federal
government to put up a lot of money for local municipalities to get on the same
bands," said Andrews. "Everyone is going to have to cooperate."

According to Steelman, Gov. James E. McGreevey chose Camden County as the one
jurisdiction in the state that could apply for grant money the Office of Homeland
Security set aside for communications issues. Steelman said he was unsure how much
the county would request.

Interoperability became a buzzword after the terror attacks of 9/11, said Andrews.

"Before September 11, people put out fires and police responded to police calls,"
Andrews said. "There wasn't any sense that a mass casualty scenario could happen
in this country."

On 9/11, all eyes were focused on the smoldering rubble of the twin towers. At
ground level, hundreds of police, fire and EMS units rushed to the scene, many
unable to communicate with one another.

According to the McKinsey & Co. report on the World Trade Center attacks, the FDNY
and NYPD could not communicate directly. The report noted important information on
the structural integrity of the buildings never reached incident commanders.

"It does take tragedy to call the general public to this," said Andrews.

According to Ron Hasareth of APCO, the FCC is giving up 700 MHz television
channels for public safety use "but access to them will be slow at best."

The 700 MHz frequencies are becoming available as the FCC pushes television
stations toward digital broadcasts of 500 MHz frequencies.

"You must wait for television to get off the bands," he said. "The media has a
tremendous amount of power."

In 1998, the FCC reallocated 10.8 percent of the 700 MHz band to nationwide public
safety interoperability. Before the FCC issues a license to operate in the 700 MHz
public safety band, local governments must have equipment to operate in this band.

According to the FCC's National Coordination Commission, television stations
aren't required to vacate 700 MHz frequencies until Dec. 31, 2006, and when 85
percent of television subscribers nationwide have switched over to digital
television.

Camden County's needs assessment study should be finished sometime in 2004.
Funding, politics

Hasareth said ultimately only two factors will spark improvements and protect
public safety.

"It's funding and politics - that's the No. 1 issue," he said.

Andrews hopes Camden County acts quickly and doesn't waste any money it secures to
upgrade communications.

"The worst thing we could do is to get the money together and not work together
with other counties. We don't want a situation that Camden County has the best
system money can buy, but Philadelphia's is horrible," he said.

If sufficient money isn't available, Andrews said the county must come up with
temporary solutions.

"You have to put money right now into a patching system," he said. "Then you have
to have the tech people and the first responders agree on what a uniform system
should be, then you have to go out and get the money and put it to use."

Andrews is more than willing to return to the FCC to fight for frequencies - if
and when the county decides what it wants. Cooperation key

In terms of large scale interoperability issues, Andrews said the status of
communications between surrounding counties and even Philadelphia have to be
looked at as well.

Currently, Burlington County police departments can't directly communicate with
departments in Camden County. The two counties share a 33-mile border. Even when
Burlington's 500 MHz system goes on line this fall a lack of interoperability will
exist with some of the biggest nearby communities - Camden and Cherry Hill.

Atlantic County, which shares an 11-mile border with Camden County, is
implementing an 800 MHz, trunked system for its police departments. Camden County
and Gloucester County police also don't share interoperable systems along another
33-mile border.

Watching surrounding counties upgrade is frustrating for Oaklyn Police Chief Chris
Ferrari, who sits on the advisory board for the county's most recent survey.

"We have the biggest population in South Jersey, we have the busiest roads, and
the most crime. We should have the best system," Ferrari said.

Ferrari thinks too many evaluations and studies have too little to show. While
they wait for federal organizations and county officials to free up technology and
funding, Ferrari and local departments will continue to stretch the system's
limitations.

"New officers know our limitations when they're being trained. We teach them how
to work around it," said Ferrari. "It's a constant in our jobs. There's always
issues." Risk vs. cost

The cost of building an advanced county system is great, said Chief Garrity -
Burlington County's new 500 MHz, digitally trunked dispatch system came in at $30
million - but keeping the current one is a liability.

"Sure it's going to be expensive, but with a county the size of ours, we should
have a top-of-the-line system," Garrity said.

Garrity pointed to lawsuits filed after the July 4 Gloucester City that killed
three young sisters and three firefighters.

"Lawsuits have a way of getting people's attention," Garrity said.

The county communications center is named as a defendant in legal papers filed by
the families of Gloucester City firefighter Thomas Stewart III and Mount Ephraim
Fire Chief James Sylvester.

"The family's goal is to see that something like this won't ever happen again,
said Cherry Hill attorney David Kauser, who is representing the Stewarts.

County officials wouldn't comment on any potential lawsuits or the incidents of
the July 4 fire.

Public trust, let alone liability, should be concern enough to motivate officials
to address the issues regarding the countywide system, said Toni Finley of APCO.

"The cases where they need communications to work and it doesn't are only a small
percentage of the run loads," Finley said. "But in those incidents, what's the
liability?

"The public expects to get the help they need - they don't care why it isn't
working."

http://www.courierpostonline.com/news/southjersey/m070203h.htm

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