Fort Worth, TX: Police Radios Fail During Fort Worth Chase

[n2ops]

Police Radios Fail During Fort Worth Chase « CBS Dallas / Fort Worth
A suspect chase by the Fort Worth Police Department turned into a communications nightmare early Friday morning. Critical police radio systems collapsed across Fort Worth, preventing law enforcement officers from relaying important information to each other.

 

[KI4VBR]

Was it due to an upgrade project or voice quality with the "New & Improved Digital Techology". Sometimes the truth is hidden with things like this, however....I would put money on the fact that digital voice quality may have played a role in this unfortunate event. I feel for the office who stated he was "all alone" and could not connect with anyone. What a bad feeling that must be.

Vince

 

[KC8ESL]

So if other users were able to use the system as they normally would, would it be safe to suggest that possibly no time-out-timer was installed on the TRS and someone was sitting on his microphone while in the chase? Or worse yet, maybe he was sitting on his microphone and the talkgroup timed out but because he was still transmitting, no other users could talk on it?

I'm not saying these systems are fail-proof, because they defeinetely are not that! But could it have been human error?

Must be a rough spot to be in, no comms and an emergency situation. Hopefully everyone learns a lesson from it and it doesn't happen again. Of course, no one will care why it happened, blame everyone else, and (I'll just shut up now).

 

[profiledescent]

Ain't trunking great? Complicate communications as much as possible, for as much money as is possible.

 

[redhelmet13]

Was it due to an upgrade project or voice quality with the "New & Improved Digital Techology". Sometimes the truth is hidden with things like this, however....I would put money on the fact that digital voice quality may have played a role in this unfortunate event. I feel for the office who stated he was "all alone" and could not connect with anyone. What a bad feeling that must be.

Vince

It was on the aging analog smartnet ii system. They are nearly done with the buildout of the replacement system and a few other cities have the PD on the new system. I feel for everyone involved in the use/troubleshooting of the existing system.

 

[KI4VBR]

I cant help but wonder how much of these "problems" are being incorrectly labeled or identified and are nothing more than poor digital voice quality. It seems like many county & local agencies that are on digital voice are not accepting the quality of service provided by their digital voice systems versus their old analog gear.

Many of the department employees using higher-tech radios (beyond 2 simplex and 1 repeater channel) may be lumping all different kinds of problems into one or two categories. Naturally, the bottom line is they cant communicate.

Each time I spend a couple hours or more monitoring, I hear at least one station request they carry on a conversation via a cell phone, not due to privacy but due to poor reception. I also hear that same "poor quality" on my cheap radio (HP1 & 396XT) in the form of garbled, echo'ed and dropped audio.

I guess I have a bad attitude when it comes to the digital communications solutions that are being sold to public service departments with all the promises in the world. I am far from an expert with all of the various new technology but have a firm understanding of digital voice and the bandwidth required to properly communicate. It seems like many digital systems being deployed are coming up short on the promises that were originally made pre-sale.

If vendors can't get digital voice implemented properly, all the extra features and interop functionality don't mean a hill o beans and they should go back to basics, then incrementally grow from there.

If for some reason I happen to disappear, I would imagine a sales executive from Motorola or Harris has taken a contract out on my _ _ _ .

Please move this post if it should be somewhere else....Sorry, I did not intend to hijack from the O.P.

Vince

 

[W8RMH]

I know digital does not handle background noise well. I wonder if the sirens may have affected the radio quality.

 

[jparks29]

I know digital does not handle background noise well. I wonder if the sirens may have affected the radio quality.

You must not be familiar with some of the NR/DSP updates.

 

[W8RMH]

You must not be familiar with some of the NR/DSP updates.

I am not familiar with them. Just a thought, going by what I have read in the past. I am not an engineer.

 

[letarotor]

Since Fort Worth is not available on-line and there are no audio achieves available to listen to, I for one would be interested in hearing from someone who actually LISTENED to the chase on their scanner. The media always overdramatizes these types of stories so the discussion above is purely useless speculation.

 

[KC8ESL]

Speculation. Isn't that what this community does best?

I honestly doubt we will ever hear a straight answer. We will hear an official answer but it will probably be a PR cover-up.

 

[Russell]

Don't forget it's November sweeps and all news media is looking for that "big" story,