Oakland police radios fail during Obama visit

[alp227]

Jaxon Van Derbeken, San Francisco Chronicle, 7/26/12

A major portion of Oakland's troubled police radio system failed shortly after President Obama's visit on Monday, leaving many of the 100 officers assigned to handle presidential security unable to communicate as protesters roamed the streets, police said Wednesday.

"The guys downtown couldn't talk to one another," said Barry Donelan, head of the Oakland Police Officers Association.

"It was a train wreck," said Lt. Fred Mestas, who was on duty downtown during and after Obama's speech at a fundraiser at the Fox Theater.

Police said officers were suffering sporadic communications problems throughout the time Obama was inside the Fox on Telegraph Avenue, as well as before and afterward.

full: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Oakland-police-radios-fail-during-Obama-visit-3736022.php

see also "Oakland: Dead zones plague police radios" by the same author, whom the Society for Professional Journalists recognized as "Journalist of the Year" in 2011 for his in-depth coverage of the PG&E gas leak in San Bruno.

[FrodosPet]

1. Ham Radios, CB Radios, Family Radios...

Yes, all the new smart phones and digital trunked radio systems are cool and stylish, with loads of useful features and spectrum efficiency, but when things go nuts, it is hard to beat old fashioned point-to-point analog systems.

I cannot urge people strongly enough to get AT LEAST one, preferably more than one, of these types of radios. For Ham radio, you DO need to pass a test about regulations and basic radio technology, but it is not beyond the realm of most people reading this.

http://www.arrl.org/licensing-education-training

[sabrina 1]

2. They never have any problems communicating when Occupy Oakland are peacefully

demonstrating. It's amazing we heard nothing about their 'troubled' communications systems until now. They were able to put a virtual army of military style police forces on the streets each time a few people showed up with OWS signs.

[FrodosPet]

4. Actually, it has made the news before this

http://forums.radioreference.com/san-francisco-bay-area-discussion/244802-oakland-singing-blues-about-new-p25-system.html

http://www.insidebayarea.com/top-stories/ci_21097386

Oakland public safety radio system still failing
Police have no confidence in new system
By Matthew Artz
Oakland Tribune
Posted: 07/17/2012 06:49:57 PM PDT
Updated: 07/18/2012 06:54:52 AM PDT

~ snip ~

Oakland has long had radio issues. After years of complaints about dead spots and service malfunctions with the city's former analog system, Oakland decided to fast-track implementation of the new digital system, known as P25, rather than wait to join a regional radio collaborative that uses the same technology and will include 40 public agencies in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

The new system proved troublesome from the start. Oakland's infrastructure of antennae, servers, cables and towers proved insufficient for the energy-hungry new technology, and the city didn't do a good enough job preparing workers for the switch, officials said.

~ snip ~

----------------------------------------------------------

Oakland public safety radio system not working

Published: Wednesday, Jul. 18, 2012 - 11:23 am

OAKLAND, Calif. -- An Oakland city report says a new radio system for police and firefighters has numerous deficiencies and has given officers trouble even communicating with each other.

The Oakland Tribune (http://bit.ly/NzSJAt) reports that a city-commissioned study released Tuesday discovered that the system implemented last year is plagued by poor reception and audio and speaker problems.

Police union President Barry Donelan said officers have no confidence in it.

~ snip ~

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/07/18/4639979/oakland-public-safety-radio-system.html#storylink=cpy

[sabrina 1]

5. Those articles are both from a couple of days ago.

I'm talking about months ago and since I read most of the reports about the attacks on Occupy, I saw nothing about any problems with their communication systems at that time.

[FrodosPet]

7. Some older articles

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/08/22/problems-persist-with-oaklands-police-radio-system/

OAKLAND (CBS SF) — The city of Oakland’s new police radio system is still not working properly, two months after being installed, and the president of the Oakland Police Officers Association (POA) is worried public safety will be compromised until the radios are fixed.

Oakland installed the $10 million system in June and officers found signal dead spots all over the city. Now many transmissions are so garbled they can’t be understood.

~ snip ~

-----------------------------------------------

http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/oakland-officials-say-theyre-working-to-fix-police/nDb7F/

Updated: 3:07 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 25, 2011 | Posted: 3:02 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 25, 2011

Oakland Officials Say They're Working To Fix Police Radio Problems

OAKLAND, Calif. — Oakland's highly-touted new public safety radio communications system is still having problems, more than two months after it began operating, City Administrator Deanna Santana said Thursday.

At a briefing at City Hall, Santana said, "For achieving normalcy, we're not there yet."

Santana said "the radio system is extremely complex" and it will take some time for final adjustments to be made.

~ snip ~

-----------------------------------------------

I don't see a conspiracy against the President with this.

[sabrina 1]

8. Thank you. But my point still stands, the system seemed to be working fine when they

were 'deploying' a virtual army of cops, not just their own, but from other areas, to crack down on peaceful protesters. I never once heard that they were having any problems communicating with all those different PDs. Otoh, since we now know, thanks to the FOIA that the deployment of robo cops from all over the place was coordinated on a Federal level, maybe they were not using their local equipment.

But then if that is the case, one would think that when the POTUS is going to be there, knowing they had faulty communications equipment, especially after what happened to the NYFD on 9/11 whose communications equipment was faulty and which Ghouliani had refused to fix, causing, according to Fire Fighters, the needless deaths of hundreds of Fire Fighters who could not be reached to stop them from entering a collapsing building, you would think considering all of that, that they would not have used their known-to-be faulty equipment.

Sounds like someone has priorities, ie the suppression of peaceful, Anti-Wall Street corruption protests or, just plain incompetence.

[FrodosPet]

9. Never underestimate the amount and scope of incompetence.

Some people are amazingly dedicated, competent, and hard working at minimum wage, and some people would screw up pouring a glass of water for a million dollars.

Then there is the reality that the farther you get from K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid), the more things can go wrong. All the lab testing in the world doesn't replace real life use for debugging.

There MAY be something to what you are saying, but having worked with radios and electronics since I was a child, I put it at a low percentage.

[mfcorey1]

3. This smells!!!!

[Comrade_McKenzie]

6. The entire Oakland PD, as well as the Mayor is a train wreck. nt