NEWS

Salem police, fire radio upgrade in the works

Michael Rose
Statesman Journal

Salem police began noticing the problem last summer. Spotty radio reception inside of some buildings made their handheld radios unreliable tools.

“You can hear a garbled ‘something-is-going-on,’ but you can’t tell what they’re saying,” said Mark Buchholz, who oversees the city’s radio communications infrastructure. He is also director of the emergency dispatch center.

Radio systems used by Salem police, fire and public works have been pushed to the brink of obsolescence. The city intends to replace its decades-old network with new technology: the latest generation of an 800-megahertz, trunked radio system.

Within the next few months, the city plans to issue a request for proposals, and by late 2016 it expects to have a new system operational. Tower sites, radio controllers and associated electronic gear could cost $15 million, according to a city staff report.

Knowing that this day would come, Salem has been putting dollars away in its “radio community fund” to help finance the upgrade, Buchholz said.

Salem currently operates two separate radio communication systems. Fire and public works share a 24-year-old, 800-megahertz system, Buchholz said. Salem police depend on an even older 450-megahertz system, he said.

Police and fire can’t communicate directly with each other using their radios. Instead, they relay messages through the emergency dispatch center, or sometimes resort to using cell phones.

Salem’s proposed upgrade would replace the dual, non-compatible systems with one radio network.

Salem Police Chief Jerry Moore said communities nationwide upgraded radio systems after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

“Locally, we’re not much further along than when 9/11 occurred, Moore said. He said the main reason why city police weren’t included in the network used by the fire department many years ago, was the cost.

Making the radio upgrade a more pressing matter: a technical glitch.

Lower quality sound on police radios became evident last summer. It’s a side effect of the city complying with current Federal Communication Commission rules.

Salem and other operators of UHF radio systems are required by the FCC to switch to “narrowbanding” — a method to ensure a more efficient use of radio spectrum.

Salem made the change to narrowbanding in July and “definitely noticed a loss in coverage,” Buchholz said. The problem has been most noticeable inside of buildings and on the fringes of city limits.

Buchholz said he wasn’t aware of any actual harm resulting from hard-to-understand radio transmissions, but it’s obviously a concern.

In one instance, he said, a police officer responding to a disturbance inside a home in West Salem had to duck outside to make a call for assistance

FCC rules restrict the city’s ability to transmit at a higher power to improve the signal, Buchholz said. The UHF radio system used by Salem police has been in operation for 30-plus years, he said, and it makes little sense to invest in improving something that’s incompatible with the fire department’s radio.

Meanwhile, the 800-megahertz system used by the fire department and public works, which was installed in 1990, is past due for an upgrade. Buchholz noted that its manufacturer no longer supplies parts for the particular model of equipment the city uses.

mrose@StatesmanJournal .com (503) 399-6657, Twitter @mrose_sj

More about the upgrade

Salem wants to step-up to an 800-megahertz system that is “Project 25”-compliant. Called P25 for short, it’s a standard for radio communications that allows local, state and federal agencies to talk with one another in emergencies.