The Betrayal of New York's Bravest

In 2003 Police, Fire, Ambulance, and Transit in the Victoria area (BC Canada) went to a Motorola Digital radio system. The system was designed, implemented and maintained by a corporation called Capital Region Emergency Services Telecommunications (CREST). The corporation included representatives from the local municipalities, Provincial government, Povincial Ambulance Service, BC Transit and the CRD.

From the outset users reported problems with "bonking", unheard transmissions and garbled transmissions. The downtown core reported the most problems due to the amount of buildings and heavier call load. It became so bad that the Presidents of the Victoria Fire and Police unions sent memorandums to the Capital Region Emergency Services Telecommunications (CREST) putting them on notice that they considered the system a threat to the safety of their members.

Some upgrades to the system were made but the problems continued and in fact became worse as reported by the users.

The frequency used by CREST (VHF 136-174 Mhz) is a commercial band of channels. These channels, unlike the 800 Mhz, are congested with interference which will increase as time goes on. So in our case we aren't just dealing with the problems inherent in the Motorola Digital systems on 800 Mhz, we are also dealing with a frequency which does not give us priority.

The system shut down completely in 2003 and again on October 27th 2005. We also know, as does the CREST board, that in the event of an area wide disaster or critical incident the system will not tolerate the volume of radio traffic and there will be no emergency services comms. This is highly ironic in that the system was put in place to address the need for a system which would allow all the jurisdictions to communicate during an area wide incident. When the system is most needed it will fail.

The CREST corporation is now in a financial deficit and will have no funds available for several months and possibly years.

Also, given the frequencies we operate on and the experiences of places like Miami and Philadelphia it would be fiscally irresponsible to pour more of the tax payers' money into an unfixable system.

We have close calls on a daily basis where officers are calling for cover or help and are not being heard.

On one occassion officers called for assistance multiple times while fighting with a male who had slashed himself and was covered in blood. The male managed to grab the beanbag shotgun from one of the officers. After many failed attempts on the radio one of the officers called 911 on her personal cel phone. The cel phone worked in the building. This happened two years ago. Nothing was done to improve coverage in the building which is notorious for calls involving violent and sometimes armed persons. The problem remains to this day.

On another occassion one of our Sgt.'s made multiple calls for help while he wrestled with a violent mentally deranged person. He was finally able to subdue the suspect.

Also on a daily basis members tell me that they have told their spouses that should they be hurt or killed as a result of the radio system that they should retain a lawyer to pursue CREST and Motorola.

Some Police and Fire officials are supportive however, due to the political backdrop there is a limited amount they can do.

CREST's response to the unions has been a "quit your whining" attitude with an underlying hostility. CREST has conducted an independent review which downplays the concerns of the users and states that due to financial issues they will be "unable to do anything any time soon".

All we can do is pray that something is done before one of our members is hurt or killed. The fact that it has already happened elsewhere doesn't seem to bother those who continue to defend the system.


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