HPD opens backup dispatch center in Kapolei
By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Honolulu Police Department yesterday in Kapolei unveiled its Alternate Communications Center, which can direct police radio traffic if the primary communications center at police headquarters is shut down by anything from terrorists to tsunamis.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
The $900,000 center, in the basement of the new Kapolei police station, gives O'ahu added assurance that dispatchers will not lose contact with officers during an emergency, Police Chief Lee Donohue said.
All police calls yesterday were dispatched from the Honolulu Police Department's new communications center in Kapolei. The center cost $900,000.
"This dispatch center is unlike any in the country," he said. "The bottom line is we'll be better able to serve the public."
Donohue said he became convinced the island needed a backup communications center while police were planning security for the Asian Development Bank conference held here in May.
The center was operational by the time of the week-long conference, which drew noisy street protests but no violence.
The center's high-tech features allow digital voice messages broadcast over police radios to travel over the same telephone lines that connect city government computers, said Robin Grier, president of Catalyst Communications Technologies, which designed the system.
The radio signals can be received as sound by any city computer loaded with the correct program, allowing that computer to function as a dispatch terminal if needed, he said.
"We have, I think, the best police department in the country, and one of the reasons is that we have the best people and the best technology," Mayor Jeremy Harris said.
The alternate center can be activated any time work must be performed on equipment at the primary center, said Lt. Charles Chong of the police Communications Division.
The new center is on a different electrical and telephone grid than the primary center, which helps ensure one will remain functional at all times, he said.
The new center was used to dispatch calls for police service for 48 hours in mid-June while the primary center was upgraded with new computer equipment, Chong said.
All police calls were dispatched from the new center yesterday to demonstrate its capabilities.
Reach Johnny Brannon at jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.
