Report Cites Flaws in Radio System
External News Source December 4, 2012 Industry
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
The Palm Beach County Office of Inspector General raised questions about the purchase, operation and oversight of the OpenSky police radio system by a consortium of cities in a report released Friday.
Both the consortium and West Palm Beach — at odds over the system because the city has spent $5 million but never activated it — hailed the report as a victory.
Consortium leaders said they were pleased with the report, which found the consortium had worked effectively with the vendor to overcome early problems and get OpenSky operational in Palm Beach Gardens, Palm Beach, Atlantis, Jupiter and Juno Beach. The report also noted that the first three cities, which have used the system the longest, have had "no major system problems or outages reported."
West Palm Beach Mayor Jeri Muoio, however, said in a statement that the report "makes crystal clear" what she's been saying for more than a year — that the system has too many problems to go forward with it.
"Under my watch this city will not be part of a system that jeopardizes the security of our police officers," Muoio said. "Officer and public safety is paramount and more important than any amount of money that may have previously been spent on the system before I was elected mayor."
The report said the inspector general's office began its audit after The Palm Beach Post first reported in May 2011 that West Palm Beach officials had buried reports documenting problems with OpenSky in 2009 and 2010. The sharply critical reports from the city's technical staff described dead spots, calls that didn't go through, jury-rigged connections, poor coverage and the difficulty of operating a proprietary system as most agencies move toward an open platform that eases communication between agencies.
The Post also reported then about a breakdown in the radio system while a Palm Beach Gardens officer was involved in a manhunt.
At stake is what officers say is an important tool that is key to police work, including their own safety. Former West Palm Beach Police Chief Delsa Bush, an ardent OpenSky supporter, resigned last year after disagreements with Muoio over the system.
While 67 percent of officers in Palm Beach Gardens, Palm Beach and Atlantis said the OpenSky radios were an improvement over their older antiquated systems, 69 percent indicated they experienced problems with OpenSky that could affect officer and public safety. Most common problems included dead spots, poor audio quality and dropped calls.
Testing in Jupiter and Juno Beach showed the system worked well, indicating that the system may perform better in some areas . The report said the consortium must address this.
The consortium failed to look for more advanced technology that could have been an improvement over OpenSky even though the contract with OpenSky's vendor was not executed until six years after the consortium selected OpenSky in 2000. That delay led most cities in Palm Beach County to leave the consortium.
The consortium designed the system with specifications that "resulted in insufficient coverage in denser buildings" that make up downtown West Palm Beach.
The consortium should not have collected payments until OpenSky was proven to work. "Considering that this was relatively new and unproven public safety radio system technology, stronger contract provisions should have been in place to better protect the (consortium) and its members," the report said.
The consortium recorded a 97 percent pass rate in a testing phase despite a confidential report from L.R. Kimball, the consortium's consultant, that said OpenSky should not pass that acceptance test because of a great deal of digital echo, audio dropouts and partially broken transmissions throughout the area. "Given that the system is used for law enforcement, I am not comfortable with the overall coverage and quality," the consultant wrote.
"Having recorded acceptance test results that show the system performing better than it actually is, even if the problems are eventually fixed, puts the buyer at risk for accepting a system that could subsequently require costly improvements," the report said.
Robert Mangold, police chief of Atlantis and chairman of the consortium, said Friday that the consortium was unaware of the Kimball report.
"One of the issues as defined by the inspector general was very poor documentation and that's something we have to deal with," Mangold said.
Mangold also downplayed the survey that showed 69 percent of officers found problems with OpenSky radios.
"I challenge you to find a radio system anywhere in this country produced by whatever vendor that doesn't have some issues like that," Mangold said.
The inspector general report gave 26 recommendations about improving the consortium's transparency, arranging for an annual financial audit and resolving dead spots, audio quality and dropped calls, even if it requires additional antennas and boosters.
Mangold said the consortium "didn't take issue with the recommendations. We pretty much concur with what they found."
But West Palm Beach officials might use the report as fuel to leave the consortium, which charges the city about $200,000 a year. If West Palm Beach drops out, the cost for the remaining consortium members could rise by more than 70 percent. In Palm Beach Gardens, the cost would rise from $70,000 to $120,000 a year.
Muoio said last week that the city attorney has advised the city to drop out of the consortium. Commissioners will discuss it at a workshop on Monday.
Commissioners already had said they will ditch OpenSky despite a $5 million investment. They must now decide whether to remain with the consortium but go to a newer P25 system with Harris, the OpenSky vendor, for an estimated $8.2 million. P25 can work better more easily with other radio systems.
West Palm Beach could also purchase a P25 Motorola system for a cost of $5 million to $5.9 million. Using the system that Palm Beach County runs would be the least expensive option, costing the city an estimated $2.5 million. But then the city would not be in charge of its own system. Muoio said the city should not latch on to the county system because it's not clear when the county will migrate to P25 and the city needs to update its radio system.
Copyright © 2012 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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