Snafus Halt Work on O.C.’s New Police Radio System

Orange County officials have halted work on a new $80-million emergency radio system after a series of failures, including one case involving a tense SWAT situation that officers say endangered their lives.

The radio system was designed to enhance communication among police and other emergency agencies. But police in Irvine, the first city to begin using it, say the system is riddled with problems.

Technicians from Motorola, which is constructing the network, have spent weeks trying to remedy the complaints.

Officers told a county committee overseeing the project that the new radios sometimes fail to pick up calls from dispatchers, produce delayed and garbled messages, drain batteries of motorcycles, and experience blocked reception in some areas, including parts of the Irvine Spectrum complex. The failures, they said, have led to some tense moments.

In one case, a motorcycle officer trying to escape an angry crowd after a concert at Irvine Meadows was unable to start his vehicle because the radio had drained his battery.

In another case, a garbled communication from an officer responding to a brawl at the Irvine Spectrum delayed colleagues from finding her to help.

Earlier this month, officers say, the radio delayed communications during crucial moments of a search in an Irvine warehouse for two carjacking suspects. As a result, officers with guns drawn didn’t get a message saying that SWAT officers inside were coming out until after they had emerged.