Milwaukee Police Finish Conversion To OpenSky Communication System | Newsradio 620 - Milwaukee, Wisconsin News, Talk, Sports, Weather | Local Headlines
MILWAUKEE - The Milwaukee Police Department's newest and controversial digital communications system, OpenSky, has begun now in full operation.
"We're announcing, sooner than we really wanted to, that on Wednesday, September 22nd, we flicked the switch, so to speak, and made the total conversion to 700 megahertz on the digital system," said Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn in an exclusive interview on 620WTMJ's "Wisconsin's Morning News."
OpenSky is the new digital system which gives police officers the ability to communicate between each other and their stations.
Basically, police departments across America will be required by 2013 to make a switchover from analog to digital communications, similar to the switch television stations made from analog to digital signals.
More:
"We're the first police department in the country to both move to 700 megahertz and go digital at the same time, and it's working," said Flynn.
He also said the city implemented a new 911 system.
When asked as to whether the OpenSky system was safer than the one the MPD is giving up, after recent problems involving dead spots during its initial trials, Flynn said, "Absolutely."
He said the system is working despite what he called a hard transition, and the fact that police officers are still telling the department about imperfections it's finding.
"We're sending 30,000 transmissions a day, and we're continuing to get the occasional trouble report, which we ask for, and it's going to happen with any new system," said Flynn.
"We've stayed on the cops saying 'tell us every single problem you have with this damn thing, but we've got it working."
The system includes giving every officer on assignment a walkie-talkie.
"That's never been done before," explained Flynn.
"Basically, that means 24 hours a day, there'll be 1,000 radios on the streets in possession of our officers, programmed to them personally. As soon as they push the talk, we know who's talking to us. If something unfortunate should happen, we know who it is and where they went."
Flynn explained that to solve officers' problems, crews have already put up one new communications tower, and they are constructing another one.
He admitted that the problems the system has had in its initial trials over recent years have been tough - particularly in dealing with the company that provided Milwaukee Police the system.
"Nobody's making any excuses," said Flynn. "It was very frustrating, particularly initially, because part of the problem was that the vendor the city chose many years ago was acquired twice in the process.
"Unfortunately for us, the people that acquired it most recently, an outfit called Harris Communications, is a major player. I would say in the last year, we really, gradually picked up the kind of momentum we needed to get this deal done."
Flynn said that one reason they could "flip the switch" had to do with acquiring $2 million in consoles for free from Harris, because the first set of consoles had become obsolete.
"We got more than what we paid for."
MILWAUKEE - The Milwaukee Police Department's newest and controversial digital communications system, OpenSky, has begun now in full operation.
"We're announcing, sooner than we really wanted to, that on Wednesday, September 22nd, we flicked the switch, so to speak, and made the total conversion to 700 megahertz on the digital system," said Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn in an exclusive interview on 620WTMJ's "Wisconsin's Morning News."
OpenSky is the new digital system which gives police officers the ability to communicate between each other and their stations.
Basically, police departments across America will be required by 2013 to make a switchover from analog to digital communications, similar to the switch television stations made from analog to digital signals.
More:
"We're the first police department in the country to both move to 700 megahertz and go digital at the same time, and it's working," said Flynn.
He also said the city implemented a new 911 system.
When asked as to whether the OpenSky system was safer than the one the MPD is giving up, after recent problems involving dead spots during its initial trials, Flynn said, "Absolutely."
He said the system is working despite what he called a hard transition, and the fact that police officers are still telling the department about imperfections it's finding.
"We're sending 30,000 transmissions a day, and we're continuing to get the occasional trouble report, which we ask for, and it's going to happen with any new system," said Flynn.
"We've stayed on the cops saying 'tell us every single problem you have with this damn thing, but we've got it working."
The system includes giving every officer on assignment a walkie-talkie.
"That's never been done before," explained Flynn.
"Basically, that means 24 hours a day, there'll be 1,000 radios on the streets in possession of our officers, programmed to them personally. As soon as they push the talk, we know who's talking to us. If something unfortunate should happen, we know who it is and where they went."
Flynn explained that to solve officers' problems, crews have already put up one new communications tower, and they are constructing another one.
He admitted that the problems the system has had in its initial trials over recent years have been tough - particularly in dealing with the company that provided Milwaukee Police the system.
"Nobody's making any excuses," said Flynn. "It was very frustrating, particularly initially, because part of the problem was that the vendor the city chose many years ago was acquired twice in the process.
"Unfortunately for us, the people that acquired it most recently, an outfit called Harris Communications, is a major player. I would say in the last year, we really, gradually picked up the kind of momentum we needed to get this deal done."
Flynn said that one reason they could "flip the switch" had to do with acquiring $2 million in consoles for free from Harris, because the first set of consoles had become obsolete.
"We got more than what we paid for."
. N9NRA
