Radio System to Get a Boost

Orange County plans to spend $1 million to help fix its troubled emergency radio network, responding to criticism that the system frequently fails and is unreliable.

The radio system, which the Orange County Grand Jury called a threat to public safety, has drawn complaints from police officers and firefighters who report garbled calls and “dead spots” inside large buildings.

County officials said they will probably use the money to build antennas in the southern parts of the county, where the problems are worst.

Despite criticism from the Grand Jury and rank-and-file officers, county officials have up to now downplayed the problems with the $82-million system and denied they will require costly fixes.

But officials acknowledged Tuesday that they receive up to 160 complaints monthly about the radios. In addition, officers and firefighters face serious difficulty keeping in touch with each other on the Balboa Peninsula and along the San Clemente shoreline.

Technicians are boosting signal strength and tweaking local antenna sites in those areas. But if the measures fail, officials said, they will have to buy antenna equipment to improve radio coverage.

“We still have to strive to hit that mark where the system works 100%,” said Costa Mesa City Manager Allan L. Roeder, who heads a county committee overseeing the radio system.

Critics of the new radio system welcomed news of the extra funding as a step in the right direction.

“It’s good. At least we’re getting some kind of response,” Irvine Police Sgt. Dave Mihalik said.

But Mihalik cautioned that officers are still forced to make do with radios they believe are unreliable.

In recent weeks, he said, a sergeant was unable to tell dispatchers vital information about two suspects he spotted fleeing from a bank robbery. In another, an officer was unable to call for help from an underground garage while making an arrest.

“People are just so frustrated that they’re not reporting it anymore,” Mihalik said. “They’re just living with it.”

County officials insist they are in control of the problems. The county, officials contend, was already making significant strides in fixing glitches when the Grand Jury released its report in May.

In a response last month to the report, Sheriff Mike Carona wrote that the new radio system is a dramatic improvement on the old one, which could no longer cope with growing volumes of emergency calls. And Carona disputed findings that recent radio failures were putting lives in jeopardy.

Recent improvements have also helped reduce problems, officials said. Adjustments of antennas have given radio coverage a much-needed boost in Huntington Beach and Newport Beach, said Joe Robben of the Sheriff’s Department.

And the number of complaints has dropped by two-thirds since the report, he said.