ShawnCowden
Member
Louisville is switching to new radio system.
Stay tune for info.
Stay tune for info.
Louisville is switching to new radio system
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ShawnCowden
Member
Council may fund 'patch' for police radios
I also posted it in the news section of this site!!!
[When police radios crackled on the morning of Feb. 8 that officers were under fire outside a restaurant, squad cars from the 4th and 6th divisions sped to the shooting with sirens blaring.
But for several minutes after 6th Division officers had secured the scene, officers in the 4th Division continued to race to the Bob Evans restaurant, because they did not know that the emergency had passed, police officials said.
The reason -- each division used a different radio system left over from the old city and county police departments.
Metro government officials say the confusion surrounding the shooting illustrates why they want to spend more than $7 million on an interim radio system that they acknowledge will be replaced after about 1½ years with a more advanced -- and much more expensive -- system.
By early 2007, metro officials hope to have a $71 million communications system -- called MetroSafe -- that will link police officers, firefighters, paramedics and dispatchers through an advanced system of radios and computers.
When that happens, officials say, the $7 million interim system will become the communications backup, meaning no money will be wasted.
Without a backup system, MetroSafe Director Doug Hamilton said, communications would have to be shut down if dispatchers were forced to evacuate because of a fire or gas leak.
Police officers say having a way for all officers to talk with each other must be a priority.
"It couldn't happen fast enough for our part," said Officer John Pugh, vice president of the River City Fraternal Order of Police.
An ordinance to spend $7 million for the communications "patch," built by Motorola, was introduced last night before the Louisville Metro Council. The council could approve the money March 10.
Several council members endorsed buying the interim system, saying it was part of the long-range communications plan.
"We have to have it to keep the city safe, now as well as in the future," said council member Madonna Flood, D-24th.
Council member James Peden, R-23rd, agreed.
"I know we have a need," he said. "Right now, the old city police can't talk to the old county police, and that can't go on."
The communications problem is the result of two police departments -- Louisville and Jefferson County -- merging into the Louisville Metro Police Department.
The old city police department used UHF frequency radios, while county police used VHF radios. Other emergency responders in Jefferson County use both those systems, as well as 800-megahertz radios.
Now, under merger, officers in the metro police department's urban divisions use the UHF radios, while the suburban divisions use VHF. So they cannot hear each other.
Police dispatchers do use a $24,000 device that allows officers on different frequencies to switch to a shared channel to communicate during emergencies. But police officials say the Bob Evans shooting illustrates the device's limitations.
On that day, officers in the 6th Division, which uses VHF radios, were the first to respond to reports of people acting suspiciously in a car outside the Bob Evans restaurant at 4620 Preston Highway, Lt. Col. Steve Conrad said.
When a shot was fired from inside the car, officers returned fire and backup was called, including nearby 4th Division officers using UHF radios.
That's when the system began to break down, Conrad said.
A dispatcher in the suburban dispatch center who was trying to relay information by telephone to the urban radio room put down the phone when she was overwhelmed by radio traffic. That effectively shut down all information to officers using the old city radios.
Officers from the 6th Division switched to a shared frequency to communicate with the 4th Division, but no one in the 4th was told to change to that frequency for 5 to 10 minutes, so they didn't know what was going on, police said.
So even after the 6th Division officers had the suspects in custody and had secured the scene, 4th Division continued "Code 3" -- high speed with lights and sirens blaring -- for 3 to 5 minutes because they weren't aware the situation was under control, Pugh said.
Conrad said he could not confirm that 4th District officers were operating under "Code 3" guidelines but said "it wouldn't surprise me."
Eventually, ballistics tests showed that the suspect who fired two shots from inside the car, 29-year-old Joshua Rucker of Shelbyville, shot once at officers and then shot himself.
With the interim system, dispatchers will be able to connect officers on different frequencies with a flick of a switch.
Conrad said he and the communications supervisors also are working on contingency plans that would put radio-room supervisors on the phone exchanging information much earlier during critical incidents.
b][/b]
I also posted it in the news section of this site!!!
[When police radios crackled on the morning of Feb. 8 that officers were under fire outside a restaurant, squad cars from the 4th and 6th divisions sped to the shooting with sirens blaring.
But for several minutes after 6th Division officers had secured the scene, officers in the 4th Division continued to race to the Bob Evans restaurant, because they did not know that the emergency had passed, police officials said.
The reason -- each division used a different radio system left over from the old city and county police departments.
Metro government officials say the confusion surrounding the shooting illustrates why they want to spend more than $7 million on an interim radio system that they acknowledge will be replaced after about 1½ years with a more advanced -- and much more expensive -- system.
By early 2007, metro officials hope to have a $71 million communications system -- called MetroSafe -- that will link police officers, firefighters, paramedics and dispatchers through an advanced system of radios and computers.
When that happens, officials say, the $7 million interim system will become the communications backup, meaning no money will be wasted.
Without a backup system, MetroSafe Director Doug Hamilton said, communications would have to be shut down if dispatchers were forced to evacuate because of a fire or gas leak.
Police officers say having a way for all officers to talk with each other must be a priority.
"It couldn't happen fast enough for our part," said Officer John Pugh, vice president of the River City Fraternal Order of Police.
An ordinance to spend $7 million for the communications "patch," built by Motorola, was introduced last night before the Louisville Metro Council. The council could approve the money March 10.
Several council members endorsed buying the interim system, saying it was part of the long-range communications plan.
"We have to have it to keep the city safe, now as well as in the future," said council member Madonna Flood, D-24th.
Council member James Peden, R-23rd, agreed.
"I know we have a need," he said. "Right now, the old city police can't talk to the old county police, and that can't go on."
The communications problem is the result of two police departments -- Louisville and Jefferson County -- merging into the Louisville Metro Police Department.
The old city police department used UHF frequency radios, while county police used VHF radios. Other emergency responders in Jefferson County use both those systems, as well as 800-megahertz radios.
Now, under merger, officers in the metro police department's urban divisions use the UHF radios, while the suburban divisions use VHF. So they cannot hear each other.
Police dispatchers do use a $24,000 device that allows officers on different frequencies to switch to a shared channel to communicate during emergencies. But police officials say the Bob Evans shooting illustrates the device's limitations.
On that day, officers in the 6th Division, which uses VHF radios, were the first to respond to reports of people acting suspiciously in a car outside the Bob Evans restaurant at 4620 Preston Highway, Lt. Col. Steve Conrad said.
When a shot was fired from inside the car, officers returned fire and backup was called, including nearby 4th Division officers using UHF radios.
That's when the system began to break down, Conrad said.
A dispatcher in the suburban dispatch center who was trying to relay information by telephone to the urban radio room put down the phone when she was overwhelmed by radio traffic. That effectively shut down all information to officers using the old city radios.
Officers from the 6th Division switched to a shared frequency to communicate with the 4th Division, but no one in the 4th was told to change to that frequency for 5 to 10 minutes, so they didn't know what was going on, police said.
So even after the 6th Division officers had the suspects in custody and had secured the scene, 4th Division continued "Code 3" -- high speed with lights and sirens blaring -- for 3 to 5 minutes because they weren't aware the situation was under control, Pugh said.
Conrad said he could not confirm that 4th District officers were operating under "Code 3" guidelines but said "it wouldn't surprise me."
Eventually, ballistics tests showed that the suspect who fired two shots from inside the car, 29-year-old Joshua Rucker of Shelbyville, shot once at officers and then shot himself.
With the interim system, dispatchers will be able to connect officers on different frequencies with a flick of a switch.
Conrad said he and the communications supervisors also are working on contingency plans that would put radio-room supervisors on the phone exchanging information much earlier during critical incidents.
b][/b]
N
N_Jay
Guest
In general its old news.
What is the source of this article?
What is the source of this article?
ShawnCowden
Member
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050225/NEWS01/502250423/1008/NEWS01
Louisville Courier Journal
todays paper
Louisville Courier Journal
todays paper
windigofer
Member
planned MetroSafe system in Louisville Metro
In regards to the new MetroSafe system planned for Louisville:
Based on the description and from what I've been able to glean off MetroSafe's website (http://www.loukymetro.org/Department/MetroSafe/), it's fairly obvious it's going to be *some* flavour of trunking system. (Quite literally every system I've seen that has all first responders on the same radio network is trunked :3)
Now, the big questions:
a) What particular flavour of trunked system? (Motorola conventional, APCO-25, etc.)
b) Are they going to construct a new system out of whole cloth, or are they going to actually switch agencies over to an existing hybrid system used by Metro government?
There are a few tantalising clues that point to the latter:
a) Ambulance services, according to previous reports on MetroSafe, are supposed to convert to a new radio system as early as late summer (and the city/county agencies for ambulance dispatch have merged as of 14 February)--indicating at least *some* of MetroSafe's radio system is in place
b) There has been a fair amount of increased activity on the existing trunked system (at least two new talkgroups, the latest being animal cruelty investigators/shelter ops on talkgroup 400-00) in regards to safety related agencies
c) Changes in the registration of the existing trunked system to the Louisville E-911 coordinators, who will be the coordinating group for MetroSafe:
http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/license.jsp?licKey=1303157
http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/license.jsp?licKey=1303124
http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/license.jsp?licKey=1303137
(These are licenses covering, among other things, the actual control frequencies and the non-control for the existing Louisville Metro trunked system; the latter, which includes all frequencies known, is registered to the Louisville EMA)
Then again, there's also things pointing to the former:
a) The following ULS applications by Louisville Metro, registered to the Police Department:
http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/license.jsp?licKey=1175224
http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/license.jsp?licKey=1175225
which are *not* trunked, but point to the development of a mobile terminal system (using both data and voice). Mobile data is supposed to be one of the components of MetroSafe.
One wishes there was more info available, LOL :3
In regards to the new MetroSafe system planned for Louisville:
Based on the description and from what I've been able to glean off MetroSafe's website (http://www.loukymetro.org/Department/MetroSafe/), it's fairly obvious it's going to be *some* flavour of trunking system. (Quite literally every system I've seen that has all first responders on the same radio network is trunked :3)
Now, the big questions:
a) What particular flavour of trunked system? (Motorola conventional, APCO-25, etc.)
b) Are they going to construct a new system out of whole cloth, or are they going to actually switch agencies over to an existing hybrid system used by Metro government?
There are a few tantalising clues that point to the latter:
a) Ambulance services, according to previous reports on MetroSafe, are supposed to convert to a new radio system as early as late summer (and the city/county agencies for ambulance dispatch have merged as of 14 February)--indicating at least *some* of MetroSafe's radio system is in place
b) There has been a fair amount of increased activity on the existing trunked system (at least two new talkgroups, the latest being animal cruelty investigators/shelter ops on talkgroup 400-00) in regards to safety related agencies
c) Changes in the registration of the existing trunked system to the Louisville E-911 coordinators, who will be the coordinating group for MetroSafe:
http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/license.jsp?licKey=1303157
http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/license.jsp?licKey=1303124
http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/license.jsp?licKey=1303137
(These are licenses covering, among other things, the actual control frequencies and the non-control for the existing Louisville Metro trunked system; the latter, which includes all frequencies known, is registered to the Louisville EMA)
Then again, there's also things pointing to the former:
a) The following ULS applications by Louisville Metro, registered to the Police Department:
http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/license.jsp?licKey=1175224
http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/license.jsp?licKey=1175225
which are *not* trunked, but point to the development of a mobile terminal system (using both data and voice). Mobile data is supposed to be one of the components of MetroSafe.
One wishes there was more info available, LOL :3
unitcharlie
a Kentucky DB Admin...
keep us posted guy.... sounds like there will be some frustrating listening in the derby city for a while....
71 Mil? Wow thats alot of jack!
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