Fixing LMPD's Radio Blues

In fact, that $7 million will only slow down MetroSafe's new center, and ranks up there with the horrible idea of moving both centers together this August in a renovated Barret Avenue center...with another large price tag.

Between Urban and Suburban there are only 7 channels used for dispatch. Urban Channel 1, 2, 3, 5, and Suburban F1, F2, F3 - Solution - Move all the dispatch channels to Urban's frequencies. Add a couple of repeaters (they won't cost even 1/4 of the $7 million) and dump the old County PD channels for the interim (let Suburban Fire use them) Better yet, stick Urban fire with the old County PD channels and take the additional frequencies to have a total of 10 channels on the Urban PD system (details, Car to car channels). EMS and PD have never talked to each other on the city side and it hasn't hurt a thing.

Total price tag for this shouldn't top $1.5 million (repeaters, extra hand helds, new consoles for the radio room). This is not that complicated. They make it sound like you have to have all these patches, when in fact, we just need to re-allocate our resources on hand.

End Result - LMPD gets Urban Channels 1-7 and LFD 1-3

Urban EMS gets Suburban F1, F2, F3 and Command

Suburban EMS and fire remain untouched.

All 8 divisions can talk to one another! YAY!

Oh wait, this makes sense, that means they would never go for it. Plus, it saves money for the interim, and we have nothing better to do with the taxpayer money but waste it.