Cops Take Radio Complaints to Airwaves - Honolulu Agrees to Upgrade System After Union Ad Campaign - Sept. 29, 2000 - By Randy Dotinga
HONOLULU (APBnews.com) -- The hills and valleys of the island of Oahu are part of its charm, eternal reminders of the volcanic activity that created the Hawaiian islands. But Honolulu police officers say the topography -- along with bureaucratic inaction -- threatens their safety.
For the past two years, the city police union has been complaining that new police radios fail in areas where signals are blocked by mountains. And for two years, nothing happened.
Then, last week, police employees put $5,000 worth of advertisements on commercial radio stations, urging citizens to carry cellular telephones so officers can borrow them when their two-way radios fail to work.
"We got a little frustrated," said Alexander Garcia, Oahu chapter chairman of the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers.
Within hours, the city and police department said they would install new antennas to eliminate the dead spots.
$19.5 million system
The problems began in 1998, when the city spent $19.5 million to convert its radios from a Motorola to Ericsson system, Garcia said. The new system was not designed to work in a mountainous area, where hills block the signals, he said.
Dead spots, which were not accessible by radio, cropped up in each of the island's four quarters, he said. The city and county of Honolulu are combined and cover the entire island of Oahu.
"You can't talk to each other," he said, and many officers had to turn to their own cellular phones to communicate with headquarters.
"Having a radio is a lifeline," said Garcia, a violent crimes detective. "You have to be able to communicate not only with dispatch but also with your fellow officers. The big difficulty is not having that direct communication."
What price safety?
The union chapter, which represents 2,000 officers, complained to no avail. "For the last two years, the city engineers and administration have been trying to correct this, but nothing happened," Garcia said.
The police union decided to take its concerns to Oahu's one million residents. The union planned to spend as much as $50,000 on three radio ads, Garcia said. "What price do you put on officer safety? If we could save one life, $50,000 is nothing," he said.
One ad starkly warned citizens to "not be alarmed" if an officer approaches and asks to borrow a cellular phone.
"If you're in trouble, need help or have an emergency, make sure you have your cell phone with you," says a male voice in one ad. "Your Honolulu Police Department needs to be able to call on your cell phone."
Police actually have not had to ask residents for their cellular phones. "We did the ads to show how difficult it could be," Garcia said. "I know the public would have lend them to us if we had asked."
New antennas on way
The day the ads appeared, police and city officials held a news conference to say that the problems were being addressed. Police officials declined to comment, but a spokeswoman confirmed that new antennas would fix the dead spot problem. The city official in charge of the antenna system did not return repeated calls seeking comment.
Garcia said he had mixed feelings about the quick response. "I wish they could have done it a couple years ago," he said. "They didn't realize how important it was." But officers will not bear a grudge, he said. Late last week, the union changed the content of the ads. "We said thank you to the public and the administration of the police department for their fast response," Garcia said.
Randy Dotinga is an APBnews.com West Coast correspondent ([email protected]).