#epicfail: Oakland's Police Radios (tax, live, cost)

[jade408]

Apparently the OPD's radios were flaky during Obama's visit, and failed after he left when police were dealing with the protestors.

So this is really dumb no matter how you look at it, but seriously, this quote is really telling:

The year-old system has been plagued by breakdowns and dead zones that have left officers' digital radios prone to blackouts across the city and in most commercial buildings, including the basement of police headquarters. A city-hired consultant said last week that the system was not up to urban standards.

What kind of beta testing did they do, if they didn't confirm the radios work inside of police headquarters?

Oakland police radios fail during Obama visit - SFGate

[iTsLiKeAnEgG]

Originally Posted by jade408

Apparently the OPD's radios were flaky during Obama's visit, and failed after he left when police were dealing with the protestors.

So this is really dumb no matter how you look at it, but seriously, this quote is really telling:



What kind of beta testing did they do, if they didn't confirm the radios work inside of police headquarters?

Oakland police radios fail during Obama visit - SFGate

I'm not particularly surprised that radios don't work in basements. Even at the time when the current system was released it was still built on archaic systems to limit overall cost (patchwork of new and existing hardware at the time). The next plan of action (hopefully) is to join the regional digital system that is being put together so that OPD can communicate with neighboring cities in a streamlined manner.

[DocGoldstein]

I'm not surprised. Oakland PD is generally underfunded, and always operating on a budget deficit. When you have to let go 1/6 of your police force just to make it to the next fiscal year without going totally insolvent, I think wonky police radios are a relatively tame problem.

[Natural510]

That's not a good look the next time someone goes Rambo on the police force.

[bigdumbgod]

Hopefully the smartphones work?

[cittic10]

Well they keep shoving these digital systems down our throats across the country.

The time tested reliable analogue conventional systems are being phased out at the expense of the tax payer and who knows how many lives.

This is not the first time digital systems (especially digital trunking systems) have been rendered unusable and it won't be the last.
And when it comes to disasters, volunteer ham radio operators handle communications for various agencies using the same perfectly good equipment they traded in for a multi-million dollar system that isn't working.