Garland / Mesquite / Rowlett / Sachse P25 System

[Motoballa]

I met with a Rowlett PD Officer and he stated the new system is working, they can keyup and play around on it but the dispatchers are unable to monitor it, he gave me a demonstration. Sounds sick! I don't think encryption was enabled as I didn't hear the 4th beep. Although I'm sure it'll all be plugged in at a later date.

Thanks for the updates.

 

[Chance]

Another update was given to Garland City Council last night.

June 19, 2017 Work Session - Garland, TX

You'll find at about 24 minutes in a complete and utter lie.

"If an officer is transporting a criminal to say Weatherford, will they be able to stay in constant contact with our dispatch?"

The answer was......."Absolutely."

And you'll hear several other stretches of the truth. As we all know here most of the features that are being touted are the same features touted back in the 1990's.

Encryption is touted as the solution to keeping officer whereabouts secret. When we all know anything that occurs is instantly tweeted by a witness already on scene. Not too mention P25 control channels are in the clear and as crowed source RDF application takes off, every user in the system will be easily plotable.

Interoperability is also magically solved with the transition to P25. Especially since the map shows cities that have switched to the "Motorola P25 Standard". Yep, you can't make this stuff up. Also goes on to say "all the Interoperability is preset in advance" U'm no....we'll be lucky if a Sachse Officer can talk to a Rowlett Officer on the same system.....much less a Garland Officer to a Richardson officer.

This started out as a hobby in my teens, and now as a middle aged adult it's just a reflection of my tax dollars going down the drain.

 

[kmoe]

When will common sense kick in that 99% of their job is in public view! There may be a lack of common sense.

 

[28056]

This started out as a hobby in my teens, and now as a middle aged adult it's just a reflection of my tax dollars going down the drain.

The fact that Mesquite is switching over a large number of users from conventional VHF to this really adds on to the already too high costs.


The guy clearing the sewer drain does not need Interoperability©®™ with the police department.

 

[IAmSixNine]

Now might be a good time for the people, like us, who know a tad bit more then the council and obviously way less then the people who say sure it works 50 miles away to step up and let the good city council members know it doesnt.

While im at it i think i have the bugs worked out on my invisibility cloak that officers can wear to help the encryption keep them hidden.

 

[twjr80]

Interoperability is also thrown out the window when encryption is used. I work with an Allen firefighter and he stated that there were rumors that McKinney may encrypt their FD comms and if they do and they need assistance from Allen, McKinney needs to give them radios so they can communicate with McKinney FD.

 

[IAmSixNine]

I like how FTW has their system set up with each city having their own set up and the entire system having a few common channels for mutual aid and inter agency communications.

Encryption is not necessary.

 

[Linn]

The capability to talk from Weatherford to Garland already exists to a certain extent by using the interoperability talk groups on the FWRRS. This is accomplished just by using towers that belong to the FWRRS.

Besides the interoperablity talk groups there are talk groups on the FWRRS that are connected to the Dallas P25 system via ISSI that provide coverage across both systems. This means that someone coming from Tarrant County can go to Dallas County and change channels to the Dallas County ISSI channel and talk back to dispatch on that ISSI channel and vice versa. So it is not a "complete and utter lie" to say that a Garland officer could go to Weatherford and be able to talk back to Garland dispatch.

Depending on how links are established between the new Garland system, the Dallas system and the FWRRS this is possible and the footprint of these systems could be expanded dramatically.

Another update was given to Garland City Council last night.

June 19, 2017 Work Session - Garland, TX

You'll find at about 24 minutes in a complete and utter lie.

"If an officer is transporting a criminal to say Weatherford, will they be able to stay in constant contact with our dispatch?"

The answer was......."Absolutely."

 

[Linn]

I am a fan too. I can talk to anyone on the system with a couple of button pushes and changes to the channel knob.

I like how FTW has their system set up with each city having their own set up and the entire system having a few common channels for mutual aid and inter agency communications.

Encryption is not necessary.

 

[Chance]

Ok. I will downgrade that from a complete and utter lie to not a snowball's chance in hell of ever happening. Point being is people in the meeting were left to believe that this interconnect capability will be in place for even simplest and most mundane tasks such as a prisoner transfer. When in reality it both dispatch and the officer would need extensive training in the usage. I hope for at least EOC operations that we see some of this pay off.

 

[IAmSixNine]

I agree completely. With out more detail he could be saying the coverage of the system reaches to weatherford or he could be meaning the system has inter operable capabilities to reach to weatherford.

 

[hiegtx]

I agree completely. With out more detail he could be saying the coverage of the system reaches to weatherford or he could be meaning the system has inter operable capabilities to reach to weatherford.

I suspect that, as Linn described, the interop capability may be there. However, that does require several hoops for the field unit, and dispatcher, to jump through to make the connection across several systems. That would definitely be something that will require training of the personnel involved.

 

[hiegtx]

Comedy of errors

Side note on the forthcoming GMRS system:

Apparently, when building one of the new towers for the new GMRS system, Rowlett started building the new tower on the wrong property. They owned a plot where the antenna was to be built, but the work crews started construction on a neighboring property. By the time the error was constructed, it was too late to move the tower under construction without a larger cost than simply buying the property it was being built on.

Story here:
Rowlett spends $478k after building police radio tower in wrong location | WFAA.com

An update on the Rowlett tower that built on property the city did not originally own.

From today's Dallas Morning News:

ROWLETT — An investigation into how the city built a 325-foot radio tower on property it didn't own traced the mistake back 11 years, but it also showed numerous recent points at which the roughly half-million-dollar error could have been caught.

Link to full story here.

Read on DallasNews.com: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/row...arned-rowlett-city-put-radio-tower-wrong-site

 

[Motoballa]

I'm out at the Fireworks on Main Street right now chilling with VIPS. Zone C Channel 6 is the ICS talkgroup their operating on. It's on the new digital system. Sounds crystal clear. Although I think I posted a while ago that they can talk on the new system but dispatch won't be able to receive them. For Rowlett anyway.

Sent from my Z981 using Tapatalk

 

[28056]

Chief Kerby starts at the 11 minute mark with the radio system discussions.

July 21, 2017 City Council Budget Workshop - Mesquite, TX
Then click on "Fire Operations Overview - Fire Operations Overview – Chief Mark Kerby"

Public safety plans to go live on October 17th.


Public works will be getting radios installed starting today and will begin testing. It will take quite some time for every public works truck so there will probably be a mix of VHF and cell phones still being used along with the new system.

 

[28056]

Is anyone actively monitoring this system? Either voice or a trunker type of program?

 

[AutoRotate]

I have programmed our aircraft, portables, and mobiles with the GMRS information as we have helped with system testing. The system is up and running.

The planned ISSI with FWRRS through the Irving site did not happen. Instead, the GMRS ISSI will connect with the City of Dallas P25 system.

GMRS has structured their I/O's to mimic FWRRS. The two systems are also sharing all the I/O's with one another to assist with cross Metroplex coverage.

Rockwall intends to structure their I/O's the same and share with GMRS. FWRRS has led the charge on a structured I/O plan that works well across all agencies.

For those that don't understand why the Street Department may need to speak with a police officer from time to time have never been involved in major disasters, such as the recent Garland tornado. Dog catchers were working with fire and police. It happens.

 

[IAmSixNine]

Glad to see good I/O planned on the system. Its not often its needed but when it is its very important.

 

[Motoballa]

Anyone able to monitor the system and grab TGID's? I know they've been testing and playing with it a lot.

Also, I made a petition tonight to see if I can keep Rowlett PD and FD's talkgroups open.. We'll see how this goes.. https://www.facebook.com/RowlettGarlandScanner/

 

[KevinC]

Anyone able to monitor the system and grab TGID's? I know they've been testing and playing with it a lot.

Also, I made a petition tonight to see if I can keep Rowlett PD and FD's talkgroups open.. We'll see how this goes.. https://www.facebook.com/RowlettGarlandScanner/

I doubt it will help, but good luck with your petition!

If you don't try you'll never know.