Posted on: Monday, July 9, 2001

HPD radio glitches a problem nationally

By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer

Like Honolulu, other cities across the country have had trouble converting police communication systems from analog to digital, with taxpayers usually paying millions more for upgrades and additional equipment.

Among the most common complaints are "dead spots," where signals faded and officers found themselves unable to communicate with dispatchers or with each other.

Among cities experiencing problems similar to Honolulu's is Kansas City, which purchased its $18.5 million system from the radio division of Ericsson Inc. and began using it in 1995. Honolulu switched to a $19.7 million Ericsson network in 1998.

"The biggest problem was dead spots," said Kansas City Police Capt. Rick McLaughlin. "You would be in your patrol car and all of a sudden your radio would show no signal."

As in Honolulu, officers in Kansas City complained that the glitches made the system unsafe, and the city eventually spent an extra $12 million to upgrade its network.

The city's terrain of rolling hills made it difficult for signals to penetrate some areas, but new antennas were built in key spots and have greatly improved the situation, McLaughlin said.

Honolulu has spent or earmarked a total of an additional $14.3 million to strengthen and expand its system since 1998. Antennas and signal amplifiers were erected or modified to improve radio coverage in problem areas, such as around Diamond Head and on the Leeward Coast.

The city plans to spend about $7 million more to replace or upgrade thousands of portable and vehicle-mounted radios that officials say are now obsolete or incompatible with the system, even though they were originally purchased specifically to work with it.

"In six months to a year, we will have one of the best communications systems in the United States, bar none," assistant police chief Eugene Uemura told the City Council's planning and public safety committee last week. "We have had a lot of negative publicity, misunderstandings and so forth, but we have checked with departments throughout the nation, and there is not one that hasn't had its share of problems."

Six months after Honolulu accepted its system in 1998, a Kansas City auditor's report found that the network there had been improperly designed by officials and a contractor, and that Ericsson had not installed all components correctly.

The company denied wrong- doing, but the report called for stronger oversight of major capital-improvement projects. Records show that the city's own consultant had warned that the system's signals would be too weak.

Harlin McEwen, chairman of the International Association of Police Chiefs' communications and technology committee, said he believed Kansas City's system had been "under-engineered" to save money. The city spent more to upgrade it than it would have spent to build a good system in the first place, he said.

"In that case, I think the city made a big mistake," he said. "If you want a Cadillac, you have to pay for a Cadillac."

He said other cities had made similar mistakes when buying radio networks from Ericsson and other vendors, but that he was not familiar enough with Honolulu's situation to draw any conclusions.

Such ultra-high frequency communications systems are not inherently problematic, McEwen said. But they must be properly designed, with well-placed antennas and enough signal strength to penetrate difficult areas, such as high-rise buildings, shopping malls and hills or valleys, he said.

Other departments that have experienced similar snags with the conversion to digital technology are Atlanta, Portland, Ore.; San Francisco, Albuquerque, N.M.; and the Delaware State Police.

Uemura and others overseeing the Honolulu system say it was designed correctly and that Ericsson fulfilled its contract obligations.

"The original system is fully functional," city Department of Design and Construction director Rae Loui wrote in response to written questions from The Advertiser. "The subsequent system enhancements, upgrades, and expansion were the result of additional requirements to the system."

But when Honolulu first activated the new 800 megahertz digital system, officers complained so much about the problems that the police department switched its patrol division back to the old low-band analog format within weeks. Uemura said those officers will convert to digital once again after their portable radios are replaced.

Digital radios convert voice transmissions to numerical code, which prevents eavesdropping. Honolulu's system is also the backbone for a communications web that allows officers to send and receive computer data, such as warrant or license plate information, without calling dispatchers.

Last July, then-City Council members Mufi Hannemann and Donna Mercado Kim said the project should be audited because of its history of problems, but nothing became of their proposal.

Ericsson had the lowest bid of three companies that bid on the digital system contract in 1994. The high bidder, Motorola, proposed a more comprehensive network that cost $7.8 million more. The company alleged that Ericsson's bid was deficient and sued the city, but lost.

"We were saying our competition didn't meet the requirements as stated in the city's request for proposals, but the judge didn't agree," Motorola spokeswoman Pat Sturmon said. "We're confident our system would have met the city's requirements."

But some governments that purchased Motorola systems have also had problems.

Orange County, Calif., recently spent $80 million on a Motorola system that officers and firefighters have complained is riddled with dead spots.

A civil grand jury that spent nine months studying the situation concluded in May that local officials had compromised public safety by shaving too much money off the price of the system, and by failing to properly survey the landscape it was to cover.

Fixing the problems is expected to cost several million dollars.

You can reach Johnny Brannon at 535-2431 or jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com.