Las Vegas Metro Police department will be radically changing the way they dispatch police officers to calls next week. They have gone digital and is in the process of getting rid of analog radio dispatching. this has serious ramifications, both for the public and for the police officers.
For people who listen to police scanners, the switch means they can no longer listen to Metro police calls being dispatch. Under the analog system, you are able to listen to police calls. Under digital dispatching, there are no police scanners currently on the market that can listen to police calls. So, besides keeping up with what is going on in your neighborhood, Metro police is now going to be more secretive.
Now, it's possible that the news media can purchase a handheld radio from Metro but the radio has to be modified. For instance, obviously the talk button is removed and they can limit the number of channels the news media can listen to. In other words, Metro is waving the middle finger to the public and becoming more secretive. In times of where Metro has been involved in numerous shootings and questionable behavior, this is not a good thing.
While the public is getting screwed, so are the police officers. The new digital system for Metro is called Open Sky. Open Sky has been a disaster in almost every city it has gone to. Many contracts with Open Sky have been canceled because of poor performance. Computer systems have crashed, there have been moments of black out where officers are unable to transmit or receive radio communication and there have been numerous dead zones.
Badger Blogger ( http://badgerblogger.com/)has been on top of this issue in Milwaukee. Milwaukee is using Open Sky and there have been moments when police officer lives were in immediate danger when the system went down 30 minutes or more at a time. Sometimes, officers had to resort to using their cell phones to communicate. Can you imagine there is a shoot out between Metro and a suspect(s) and the officers are unable to communicate what is going on to their dispatcher? It has all the hallmarks of disaster.
The Milwaukee Police Department officer's had a vote, through their union, and gave Open Sky a vote of no confidence. http://badgerblogger.com/?p=18454 and
This is hindering the public right to know what is going on with Metro and what is going on in our neighborhood.
an alderman in Milwaukee is quite angry with Open Sky and it's failures: Milwaukee Alderman Bob Donovan, a frequent critic of the new Milwaukee Police OpenSky radios, isn't happy following news that the system failed again this week.
Milwaukee Police say a software upgrade Thursday caused intermittent problems with radios in District 2 on the city's south side.
"We're in a situation where we're damn lucky that an officer or a citizen hasn't severely been hurt as a result of these poor radios," said Alderman Bob Donovan.
http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/112082319.html
In New York, the State spent $2billion on open Sky and then canceled the contact: http://www.signalharbor.com/opensky.html
The Metro's police officer's union gives informatgion about Open Sky in a 2009 article in the union newsletter, but since the article is a year and half old,k I don't know what their opinion is now: http://www.lasdhq.org/divisions/leadership-training-div/bureaus/ebd/assets/lvppa-vegas-beat-10-09.pdf
I wonder why the news media in Las Vegas is keeping Open Sky a secret and limiting the public's right to know in the black? Why are they not reporting on it, other than they want to keep us little citizens uninformed.
I do not know if North Las Vegas or Henderson police departments have gone with Metro in using Open Sky, but I would not be surprised if they are.
Now, you can still track fire calls at the Alarm office web site for CCFD, LVFD and NLVFD: http://fire.co.clark.nv.us/AlarmOffice/Alarm%20Office.aspx
You can also track accidents in Metro's jurisdiction: http://www.lvmpd.com/cgi-bin/traffic/traffic.pl
But apparently, that's about it.
I will try and stay on top of this very important issue and see what happens.
Well, Frankly......
13 hours ago
North Las Vegas PD along with both Henderson PD and Boulder City PD use the Clark County SNACC system which is a trunked analog system that has been in operation since 1998 and seems to work well. If the LVMPD has joined the SNACC system they could easily communicate with those other agencies on it for operations of mutual interest. The cost factor to add Metro to it would have been much less that what Metro is costing the taxpayers to fund the Open Sky system. Additionally, the SNACC system is very reliable. Metro has made a poor choice.
ReplyDeleteMetro is going to be in for a never ending, frustrating experience. ANd don't forget, the vendor is now pushing Open Sky II. Shall we take a guess at how many $$ will be needed to upgrade?
ReplyDeleteDont forget the boondoggles in your area:
ReplyDeleteOrange Co. CA
And the start of this disaster of disasters:
STARNet in PA...
All are DUDS!
PA has FORCED PSP on to this network at risk of its officers... and the public!
Terminations follow for any state employee who is critical of the system...
Just be sure not to assist LVMPD on any media requests.. none, zero.
Disband your crimewatch and COP programs too!
And the Vendor is actually in the process of KILLING OFF OpenSky along with the other protocol it purchased from Tyco (Toys) EDACS.
All the EDACS systems are making announcements one by one of going to P25 with ENCRYPTION.
Volusia Co. FL which is one of the first EDACS systems is now moving to P25. Look for the original EDACS system in Manatee County to become part of the SaraMana P25 Project in the near future.
They are now actively pushing APCO P25 which is good that scanners are available, but its easily encrypted with a few keystrokes.
Be very scared of SECRET POLICE!
Yeah that OpenSky is a disaster. I work closely with LVMPD and the officers HATE the system. In the cars they have both the old VHF system and the new radios stacked on each other and most will rarely even turn on the OpenSky system. Unfortunately they're HT units are only OpenSky so when they're away from their vehicle they have no choice. But anyone listening to the old VHF frequencies can hear when someone is transmitting on OpenSky (since they're simulcast together still) because the quality of the transmission is poor, it sounds like an echo, the volume is reduced and the dispatcher will almost always come back with "you're unreadable". The cut-off date to switchover 100% to OpenSky was Jan 1st, but that date has come and gone. I'm constantly hearing "radio checks" from the engineers working on the system.
ReplyDeleteYeah, watch out for them trigger happy officers..
ReplyDelete