Police radio communication “dead zones” across the North Fork jeopardize public and police safety and Southold Town is not moving quickly enough to address the problem, according to the union representing Southold’s 53 police officers.
The police radio system has been experiencing “dead zone” issues for several years, according to Southold PBA president P.O. Richard Buonaiuto, who wants the town to pick up the pace of remedying the “dead zone” problem.
The “dead zones” prevent officers from receiving or sending radio transmissions, which can prevent police from doing their jobs — or worse. There are countless situations in police work when lack of communication can be downright dangerous, Buonaiuto said in an interview yesterday.
An example Buonaiuto cited was the October 2014 shooting incident on South Harbor Road in Southold.
“The cop in Greenport didn’t even hear a transmission for that,” Buonaiuto said.
The “dead zones” are scattered all over town and are unpredictable. The radio will work fine in one spot but not at all just a few feet away, he said. The problem affects both in-car equipment and hand-held portables, but the portables are worse. Radio communications along the coastlines are consistently bad, he said.
“In an emergency, every second counts. Radios that don’t work put the public and cops in jeopardy,” Buonaiuto said.
Buonaiuto attended yesterday’s town board work session to listen to the board’s discussion of a dispatch system equipment upgrade.
Both Councilwoman Jill Doherty and Councilman Bob Ghosio asked about remedying the “dead zone” problem during the work session, but Police Chief Martin Flatley told them that was a transmission issue and a separate matter that was being addressed separately.
The police union has been waiting for the problem to be addressed — it first arose in 2012 and it’s taking longer to fix than the cops would like, Buonaiuto said. He was hoping the upgrade discussed yesterday would address the “dead zone” problem, but it will not.
Supervisor Scott Russell said he’s met with the PBA president more than once to discuss the issue and the town is moving forward with addressing the “dead zones.”
The solution to the transmission issue is likely a changeover from the present copper wire connections between towers to microwave communications from tower-to-tower, the chief said.
“At the chief’s suggestion, we recently hired a consultant to work with him to design a system,” Russell said.
Dennis Kenter, an owner of Relay Communications in Riverhead, will conduct a system-wide inventory and develop a plan to address deficiencies, he said.
The supervisor said the town is working with the consultant on the contract for his services. “I’ve already been authorized to sign it and I will sign it as soon as it’s finalized, ” he said.
“I told [Buonaiuto] that the board stands ready to finance an upgrade when the department decides what new system they want to move forward with” Russell said.
But the department needs to upgrade its 15-year-old dispatch equipment in any case, according to officials.
Flatley yesterday brought a Quogue communications firm to the work session to discuss its radio equipment upgrade proposal submitted in response to an RFP issued earlier this year.
Andrew Hintze of Integrated Wireless Technologies said the equipment upgrade he detailed in his proposal would allow the town police to use the county’s 800 MHz trunked system if and when the county builds a tower site to serve the East End. That new site would cost “upwards of $1 million,” Flatley said and it’s not clear when — or if — the county will build it. Even without switching to an 800 MHz system, the new dispatch equipment would provide clearer, crisper audio and enhance the town’s ability to communicate with other departments and agencies, Hintze said.
The proposal aired yesterday includes furniture to accommodate the new dispatch equipment. The company is offering a package deal incentive if the town signs a contract to purchase the equipment and furniture by Aug. 31.
The quotes for all of the equipment and furniture is per a state Office of General Services contract, Hintze said.
The new system comes with a price tag of $390,000, which would discounted by the incentive, to $340,000. The quote covers three dispatch stations, but is expandable as funding allows. Equipment for each dispatch station runs $50,000 to $60,000. The furniture cost is $35,000 per station. (There are four stations — three are for dispatchers, while the fourth is an administrator’s station.)
The police chief first laid out the specifics of the planned upgrade for the town board in February. He told the board then that the cost, based on three quotes he obtained in 2015, would be about $200,000. The additional $140,000 would cover the furniture.
With the age or the town’s current system, “a lot of those parts are obsolete” and cannot be purchased to repair the existing equipment, Hintze told the board. “We’re very limited in our ability to service this,” he said. Moreover, he current system relies on Verizon’s copper wire network, which is no longer being maintained by the telecommunications company.
The new equipment is “all upgradable to meet tomorrow’s needs,” he said. It can be upgraded with new firmware and software, rather than hardware. “So there won’t be forced hardware upgrades,” he said. Future upgrades would thus be less expensive.
“We worked very closely with Motorola to bring the town the best option based on what’s coming down with the county, with other police departments and with the Southold Police Department,” Hintze said.
Suffolk County is in the middle of a multi-year, multi-million dollar upgrade of its radio communications dispatch and transmission network, transitioning to new digital technologies.
Ghosio said he thought the cost of the furniture was excessive, which he suggested was because it was being sold to a municipality. He said he’s set up dispatch rooms in the private sector and “if I went to my owner and said I wanted to spend $104,000 on furniture for the dispatch department I’d get laughed at.”
“I am concerned about dealing with the dead spots,” Ghosio said. “It bothers me that we might consider spending over $100,000 for the furniture … and we’re not addressing the dead spots yet.”
The dispatch department upgrade will be covered in part by E-911 funding from the county that the chief said he’s set aside. That funding will cover about two-thirds of the cost of the new dispatch equipment and furniture. The town would have to come up with the balance, Flatley said.
