Dothan Area Law Enforcement Interoperability

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In Defense of Dothan Police Chief John Powell and Dothan Police Department

Viewed: 2346 Times

Written By: Rickey Stokes
E-mail:thehoustonnewspaper@yahoo.com
Phone334)790-1729
Date:September 9, 2007 9:08 PM


This article is written concerning the hit and run on 231 North which resulted in another accident at West Main and Ross Clark Circle causing serious injuries.
We have investigated the facts and must defend Dothan Police Chief John Powell and the Dothan Police Department.

Dothan Police has 19 Officers “assigned” to the shift that was working on Sunday, day shift.

On this Sunday, Dothan Police Department had 13 of the 19 Officers “on duty”.
Of the 6 that were not on duty (A) one is on active military duty (B) one was in National Guard (C) one was sick (D) two were on vacation (E) one was off because his duties were changing this week.

A accident occurs on Montgomery Highway in front of Old Mexico. This is located south of Westgate Parkway near Conestoga. The suspect driver of the van that caused the accident, Louis Hohoa, leaves the scene. He is traveling south on Montgomery Highway.

A motorist saw the accident and the van leave. They follow and call 911 to report the accident and vehicle leaving the scene. They reach speeds of 30 MPH to 50 MPH, traveling south.

Speculating:

The suspect vehicle has time to reach Montgomery Highway and Ross Clark Circle by the time the caller and 911 Operator have a understanding as to what has happened, the information the motorist knows of the accident, the suspect vehicle and direction of travel.

The motorist and suspect vehicle have now turned on Ross Clark Circle traveling south. The Communications Officer is sending assistance to the accident on Montgomery Highway and putting the description on the radio.

One or more of the 13 officers are responding to the accident with injuries on Montgomery Highway. Other officers are getting in position to intercept the suspect vehicle.

If a vehicle is traveling on the Circle from Montgomery Highway south on Ross Clark Circle towards Choctaw, where would you most likely try to get in order to intercept the vehicle? (A) Behind it trying to catch up, or (B) Ahead to try and cut off?

A unmarked Police Supervisor arrived at West Main and Ross Clark Circle within seconds of the crash. In fact, it is my understanding that he radioed in the accident.

Conclusion:

In my opinion, based on the information presented to me so far through research, it is a unfortunate accident that occurred. This accident caused an innocent lady to be in critical condition and air lifted to a Birmingham hospital.

( NOTE: I have not discussed this matter with Chief Powell or any member of the Command Staff of Dothan Police Department. The facts presented are ones that I personally researched)

However, the Dothan Police Department did the best they could have in responding.

Area which has to be addressed:

Years ago almost all law enforcement agencies were on VHF radio band. Houston County Sheriff Deputies had Dothan Police primary in their car radio. They monitored Dothan Police radio traffic. All were on the same band.

There was a common radio channel called “police interagency” which all agencies anywhere in Alabama could communicate with each other.

The came change. The Houston County Sheriff’s Department went to a 800 radio system. Dothan Police went to a different 800 system. Then other agencies changed, some on UHF, some VHF and some 800. The interoperability ceased to exist.

The 911 Board purchased Houston County Sheriff Deputies portables on Dothan Police channel. However, often times the Deputies for one reason or another do not have them on because of the other radio traffic.

Then we had a system of pagers. The pagers all had “cap codes”. A page went out and immediately those who needed the page received them at once. Often times the page went out before the call was ever dispatched. Officers, Deputies, Fire and EMS were responding before dispatched. The system dialed one number and hit 100 or more pagers.

Then we changed to text messages. The system now has to dial all number individually. It does this in ABC order. Often times now the message is received after units have arrived on the scene. Unlike before.

The reason for the change…we did not know who all had pagers with cap codes. With text messaging we can control each phone individually.

This past week there was a bank robbery in Ozark. I personally gave Houston County Sheriff’s Department, Headland Police Department, Abbeville Police Department and Henry County Sheriff’s Department the suspect information. They had not received it. In fact, one agency found out of the robbery from rickeystokesnews.com text messaging.

We are about to spend $ 12 million dollars on a new radio system. The most important issue is to resolve the interoperability of information between agencies. Because, taking the hit and run issue… what if a Trooper or Sheriff’s Deputy had just left Krispy Kreme and was traveling north on Ross Clark Circle and passed the van. How would they have known what was happening?

This is not just a Dothan issue. Troopers are VHF and Southern Linc, Houston County on one 800, Dothan on another 800, Midland City on VHF, Dale County Sheriff on UHF and so on.

Information broadcasts apprehends suspects.









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Readers' Comments

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Copyright © 2007, All Rights Reserved.

 

[fallinsouth]

I agree that ALL law enforcement should be able to communicate w/ each other. I know in Coffee County all but the rural VFD are on the same system and all can monitor each other's traffic.

I think that even if the local municipalities have a different system at least the county deputies should have access to their traffic w/o having 10 different radios in there cars.

No matter the technology, carrier or whatever a cell or land line phone can communicate with the other somehow. I feel that over-the-air two way traffic should be able to do the same. Different companies should stop trying to develop the next best thing and perfect what they already have available to them and spend more time trying to work towards a common goal; the people their equipment was designed to protect.

I know that Houston County's 800 system sucks to, very spotty coverage, most of the time deputies have to use their back-up car radios to even communicate with dispatch, which brings up another problem, worst case what happens if an officer is injured and can't get back to car, the handhelds are 800 only, no way to communicate, and if you are reading this and have a LINC then you know how GREAT their coverage is.

It sure would be easier to scan too!!!

 

[trace1]

If I remember correctly, back in the early to mid 90's when I was living in the Dothan area, the Houston County Sheriffs Department had a severe problem with skip-conditions from some place down in Florida on their conventional VHF system at that time.

Now I do not know if they were using any PL tones or that the interfering agency may have been on the same PL or not but the Deputies would complain often that they were not able to hear their own Dispatch at times due to the interference. It seems that some time after this is when they initially switched over to an 800MHz system that was more inline with business use rather than Public Safety use (but I could be wrong about that since it was so many years ago).

At the time I was living down there I was working at the Dothan Airport Police Department and when I first started working there we were using one of the common itinerant business frequencies. Our department then began doing a lot of training through the Dothan Police Department and once the city of Dothan switched over to their 800MHz we were able to be on it too. We had HTs on their system but we also had a mobile unit in our patrol vehicle that had the conventional VHF frequencies that Napier Field/Midland City used as well as the "State Net" where we could talk to most any other agency including the Dothan State Trooper Post.

I would certainly hope that in this day and age with the events that are happening around us that all of the agencies in the Wiregrass Area would have some of the best interoperability equipment and capabilities possible.

 

[SAR923]

I don't even understand the original post. Was this a newspaper story in its entirety or some combination of a newspaper story and someone else's comments? Who is this Rickey Stokes guy? This sounds like some kind of editorial, not a news story. Since when does a reporter come to a conclusion about who's right or wrong in a news story?

What was the issue? Is it that the hit and run vehicle wasn't caught? Why was this described as an "unfortunate accident"? My experience so far is that's Alabama-ese for an accident that was somebody's fault but we don't want to say that. If it's that a radio system that other agencies could have monitored to know about the accident, that's a legitimate concern. However, dispatchers still have telephones. We had drop lines that went to the CHP so all the dispatcher had to do was pick up the phone and a CHP dispatcher was on the line in seconds. Even under the best of circumstances, I'd guess we only caught about half of the hit and run vehicles shortly after leaving the scene of the accident.

In this case, it sounds like there was a following vehicle. Surely that person could have gotten a plate so the PD would know who the vehicle belonged to and be able to follow up with that information. If there was a follower, why is it such a big mystery trying to figure out the best way to intercept? You either know you are ahead of the suspect and can wait for the vehicle to pass or you are behind and you have to put your foot to the floor to catch up. Was the issue that the suspect vehicle would leave police jurisdiction before the PD could catch up? If so, that's an idiotic law that needs to be changed. I've heard pursuits called off here because the city left the "PJ". In California, a peace officer had jurisdiction in the entire state. I could start a pursuit in Eureka and arrest the guy in San Diego. We would always continue a pursuit until another agency took over. Since it was a Sunday, there was probably no state trooper on duty anywhere close and no sheriff's deputy available at all. It was up to Dothan PD to catch the guy who committed a crime in their city and they should have stayed on this guy and probably would have except for this insane "PJ" thing down here.

Finally, what morons decided to use LTR systems for something critical like public safety? LTR systems are marginally reliable for things like tow trucks and delivery services but completely unreliable for public safety. The safety of every first responder is continually at risk as long as they rely on a radio system like LTR.