CaptDan
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An attorney for MPS Communications fired off an angry letter to Trenton officials this week, demanding the city shell out $218,418 for unpaid services or the firm will shut off the city’s radio system.
TRENTON — They’re not on the same wavelength.
- Thread starter CaptDan
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This is all been in the making for a long time. This is Trenton! I miss the days of Doug Palmer LOL. I'm totally retired now but worked for The Trentonian for a long time in key positions. They should have never gone with nxdn system. Threatened officers lives daily. They should have gone p25 when the 800 megahertz system broke down rapidly causing them to use the old UHF frequency for a while. Pretty much all I'm going to say in all of this. Everything comes home to roost.
Though it would obviously create a very dangerous situation, MPS would be wholly within their legal rights to end services for the city and block their subscribers after that long with non-payment for services and no active contract. This is just a symptom of a larger issue that is the mess of Trenton city government though as I'm sure @trentbob will attest to. It's no profound secret, the city government has been a cluster for decades.
CaptDan
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The City has always owned and maintained it's own radio system, until this recent contract with MPS.
There have been too many rumors, innuendos and accusations of wrong doing, and this whole debacle deserves a through and independent investigation by the Attorney General's Office.
There have been too many rumors, innuendos and accusations of wrong doing, and this whole debacle deserves a through and independent investigation by the Attorney General's Office.
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Just buy them all Baofengs and put them on the N3KZ system! 
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Yes indeed, Trenton city government has been a charlie foxtrot for a long time, then it got really bad after long time mayor Doug Palmer left.
That whole process with the private vendor and the City Council has been a mess since the very beginning. Terrible radio system, it's been about 6 years now. It was in the clear for 5 years with the threat that if a certain thing was to happen, they would throw the switch, it did and they did, just like most of the surrounding communities in Bucks County PA and New Jersey for the same reason.
When you could hear the police it was nothing but dangerous situations daily. System just doesn't work well. Pursuits, bank robberies, suspect held at gunpoint, officer needs assistance calls were botched up all the time due to poor radio performance.
Hey maybe they should go back to 460.600... at least it would be in the clear LOL. Gets a little busy though.
ecps92
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RFI-EMI-GUY
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They need to pay up and shut up. With no contract, they have no room to complain. Buy a new system and pay for what you have used and continue to use.
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Yes they have a long history of open corruption, Philadelphia style LOL... Parking garage scandal, Housing Authority scandal, corrupt School Chancellor's, Police Department problems, we're going way back, I remember when they hired a civilian police director from Newark who was accused of corruption because he would know how to deal with corruption but what did him in was sexual harassment of female cops LOL...
There was a small Renaissance in the nineties under mayor Doug Palmer but inner city is basically an overflowing crime-ridden toilet. There are parts of Trenton that look like boarded-up war zones. Always teacher and police layoffs and understaffing.
They actually could afford to purchase a new radio system instead of this crazy arrangement that was peddled to them. They are getting money from the federal government under these new programs and they are in the process of doing economic voodoo that we do do with their budget cycle which will short change their pension payments and may even give them a surplus. Only on paper of course.
PS- I forgot the best one, mayor Tony Mack who had to resign as mayor so he could serve his long-term Federal prison sentence for racketeering, bribery, extortion and wire fraud LOL, that was in 2014 right before the nxdn debacle.
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900mhz
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Oh yeah...I know about Philadelphia corruption. I worked for Comcast for 33+ years and finally gave it up in February. Like I told them when I left...every dog has its day. That day has not yet come...but it will...
True, but Nextel provided pretty good portable coverage as I recall. They also marketed fairly heavily to public safety at one time. Most commercial trunk systems aren't optimized for portable coverage.
Why not, the FED's relied on Nextel vs VHF P25 for years
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Problem with Trenton is, they have a special type of criminal problem, besides the politicians LOL. In Center City there are sections that are well-to-do, with nice residence. That is surrounded by high-crime ghettos. Honestly, the police do their best and adapt to the situation of violent gang crime, and drugs. They need multiple talk groups, they have that with the nxdn. They need a good tdma Phase 2 system. They have Street crime units, heavily-armed rapid response units, stakeouts, Patrol, homicide, burglary squads, data, ect.
I'm thinking they're going to pay their bills, there's a reason they took such a crappy deal in the first place
I'm thinking they're going to pay their bills, there's a reason they took such a crappy deal in the first place
CaptDan
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Problem with Trenton is, they have a special type of criminal problem, besides the politicians LOL. In Center City there are sections that are well-to-do, with nice residence. That is surrounded by high-crime ghettos. Honestly, the police do their best and adapt to the situation of violent gang crime, and drugs. They need multiple talk groups, they have that with the nxdn. They need a good tdma Phase 2 system. They have Street crime units, heavily-armed rapid response units, stakeouts, Patrol, homicide, burglary squads, data, ect.
I'm thinking they're going to pay their bills, there's a reason they took such a crappy deal in the first place
the solution in the short term is to pay the bill. The long term is the city should own their system, or at the least be on a government owned and operated shared system.
CaptDan
Member
When Nextel first came out, they marketed very heavily to government agencies and employees. In the Trenton area at that time, most of the law Enforcement agencies could not communicate with each other. Nextel bridged a serious gap, allowing officers from all over the region to have instantaneous communication with each other.
The description of a vehicle used in armed robbery in Falls TWP PA, headed towards Trenton, Falls Twp cop uses his Nextel to let a Trenton cop he knew about the car headed towards Trenton. Trenton cop gets the information out on Trenton Police Radio and TPD waiting as the guy comes across the Calhoun St Bridge. TPD cops are notifying their dispatcher that vehicle and driver are in custody, and the dispatcher's response was that she was on the phone getting the alert from Falls Twp. Thanks to Nextel, the suspects were in custody before an alert for them was even broadcast.
So many stories like that ! Point being Nextel served a useful purpose.
The description of a vehicle used in armed robbery in Falls TWP PA, headed towards Trenton, Falls Twp cop uses his Nextel to let a Trenton cop he knew about the car headed towards Trenton. Trenton cop gets the information out on Trenton Police Radio and TPD waiting as the guy comes across the Calhoun St Bridge. TPD cops are notifying their dispatcher that vehicle and driver are in custody, and the dispatcher's response was that she was on the phone getting the alert from Falls Twp. Thanks to Nextel, the suspects were in custody before an alert for them was even broadcast.
So many stories like that ! Point being Nextel served a useful purpose.
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The county 500 megahertz simulcast system is long in the tooth. The only police departments to ever hook up of course were Lawrence and Hopewell. Others stayed on their systems but went p25 conventional encrypted. I remember when Ewing went encrypted like 20 years ago LOL.
Yes I think they will pay their bills or negotiate the bill down. As far as good planning for a new system, I wouldn't hold my breath. Remember, besides the politicians being very corrupt these are incredibly stupid people.
Yes I think they will pay their bills or negotiate the bill down. As far as good planning for a new system, I wouldn't hold my breath. Remember, besides the politicians being very corrupt these are incredibly stupid people.
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