New York’s Emergency Radio Network
Are law enforcement officials in New York state ready communications wise should another disaster happen in the state that would require the resources of all agencies? According to a new audit of the emergency radio network in the state, the answer is no. M/A-Com was hired during the Pataki administration to oversee a $2 billion dollar radio network that would connect all law enforcement agencies together throughout the state. Trials of the network on more than one occasion have failed so miserably that the state is considering dropping the current contractor and starting all over again. Just how important is this project?
Early planning on the project, the Statewide Wireless Network, began more than a decade ago within the Division of State Police, but the inability of first responders to communicate with one another during the World Trade Center attack on Sept. 11, 2001, intensified interest.
Thousands of police, fire and medical workers cannot use the state’s current system, and large areas of the state are unreachable.
Tests last September on the project’s first phase of installation found that words could not be understood and that communications between relay towers were too often lost. Those problems recurred during retests in April and July, the audit said.
Is the contractor 100% to blame though? According to Tyco Electronics, parent company to M/A-Com, they have performed as well as the state has allowed them to:
Sheri L. Woodruff, a spokeswoman for Tyco Electronics, said the company had met all its contractual obligations, and blamed the Office for Technology for the delays. She said the state had failed to issue site approvals until Dec. 20, 2006, after the deadline for completing the first phase had passed. That made it impossible, she said, for the company to begin acquiring land on time.
The state then added further complications by beginning the testing too soon and shortening the 36-week testing cycle called for in the contract, Ms. Woodruff said.
She said Mr. DiNapoli’s characterization of progress on the system was “misleading and inaccurate,” and added that testing was part of the process of getting the system up and running. The first phase, which includes installations at 38 sites, was nearly complete, she said.
One thing everyone can probably agree on is that this is a project that is of the utmost importance for the state of New York. Law enforcement agencies need the ability to communicate with one another, especially at the time when they are all needed at a moment’s notice to work together. And at this moment, it looks like law enforcement is not receiving all of the help they need to do their jobs properly.
Daniel M. De Federicis, president of the Police Benevolent Association of the New York State Troopers, said he was disappointed that the project was stuck in the first phase while troopers were “saddled with a patched-up radio system” that did not function in many remote areas.
“That is of great concern to us, since they need to know that another fellow trooper, law enforcement officer or dispatcher will answer their calls for assistance in times of emergency,” Mr. De Federicis said.
The state has set a deadline of August 29 to make a decision to stick with M/A-Com or move on to another radio contractor.
