You'd think intelligence would prevail, yet it doesn't. You are correct in the thought that shady used car dealer tactics are used by the larger companies, this is something that has been proven time and time again. The big buzzword in the public safety communications industry is "interoperability", you can sell just about anything if you can tie that word to it.
One of the big issues is that our government wants desperately to "fix" the communications issue, yet they don't know how. In an attempt to look like they are doing something to help, they will gladly fork over millions of dollars to smooth talking salesmen that promise the moon, yet deliver the stuff you find on the floors of stables. Politicians are looking out for number one. They want to keep their spot at the money trough and will do some truly stupid things to keep themselves there, even wasting millions if not billions of taxpayers money.
To top this all off, the public in general wants the best for our first responders, however they don't know how to do that. The public will demand something be done right away to fix the issue, and the sales guys will be standing right there with a "solution" that just so happens to fit the budget.
Interoperability isn't a technology that you buy. It isn't a box with lights and dials that makes a whirring sound. It certainly isn't P25, although there are those that will fight to the death to convince you it is. Interoperability is an attitude. It's the idea that two or more adults will identify a need and work together to make communications work. It doesn't need to be new radios or more money spent, it needs to be a change in the way things are done and they way different agencies cooperate. Unfortunately some agencies like to be inflexible and want everyone else to change the way they do business to match theirs. This is adults acting like children, and it doesn't work.
When technology is applied as a fix to this lack of cooperation, it fails. It fails almost every time. People die, yet we don't learn.
When a big agency buys into the technology as a solution to interoperability, it forces everyone else around them to have to purchase the same technology, even those that can't afford it. Look at the big fire departments that buy into the P25 world. They'll purchase $2500 to $6000 radios and set them up so they are anything but interoperable. They'll then require any agency around them that wants to talk to them purchase the same radios. Many times smaller agencies, or volunteer fire departments can't afford this gear. What happens is the guys who really need the radios don't have them. The departments simply can't afford to equip everyone with a radio that costs that much. When the responders that need the radios don't have them, because of the high cost of "interoperability", the system has failed.
This is driven, like so many other things, by the haves versus the have-nots.
There isn't a P25 radio made today that won't do analog. Analog is the de facto standard. Everyone has it. Analog is interoperable, doesn't matter which radio you have, as long as you are on the same band, you have interoperability with the other radios.
The reason this doesn't work is because there isn't as much money to be made in analog. It's more profitable for the big companies if everyone is forced to purchase a $2500 or more radio for each responder. After all, the bottom line is whats more important, not the safety of our first responders.
Multi thousand dollar P25 radios are not the answer. If anything, the new multi-band radios are whats needed. The prices are nearly the same, yet one provides true interoperability, the other just throws technology at the issue.
Oh, and that technology that is supposed to solve all the issues, yeah, it's out of date. P25 has been in the works for 20 years now, and it's only now operating in a way that is even remotely reliable.
