FOP Endorses Kelly Downard for Metro Mayor

If they were serious about getting a system up and running for the officers they would have skipped the PHASE1 junk. All they did was put 4 different comm centers (Urban, Suburban, EOC, and Lou Fire/EMS in a big room with shiny computers and cramped desks). Yes we have a bridge computer so we can talk to Indiana, KSP, whoever!! We still have to transfer 911 calls amongst staff within the center, and we still have cruddy radio channels with bleed over, static, and tones that now seem to cut out officer transmissions on the dispatcher end. Oh, and officers can't talk to each other unless we "bridge" 2 channels together.

Fact is, the "moto-bridge" could have been put in all the old centers along with all these consoles they bought. They could have saved 700,000 in renovations, and started work on the new center at 5th and Armory, and maybe have been close to done. We still have to call each other on the phone for runs (or yell across the room, which I am sure looks very professional).

Further, they could have purchased the Trunked 800 MHz system with the portables and in car radios, which seem to be the biggest problems with the current system. Instead, the focused on what the public could see, not what they can hear. To hear the boss talk, you would think when you call 911 you just give your emergency and that's it. Lies, lies, lies! Don't believe me? Call 911 from anywhere in the Urban service district and ask for the fire dept on a fire, or ems for a heart attack! If you don't get transferred I'll eat my shoe.

And to make things worse, the vendor that is consulting on this junk (i think it's PEC solutions) just jumped the price tag to around 120 million, because 2003's dollars aren't what they were when the 70 million tag was quoted to the city. Word has it they had to call ems for a deputy mayor that fainted at the cost, and the caller had to be transferred when they called the new center. Jerry was too slow to act, waiting for the Feds to pay for all of it. You have 75 million for an arena, but you don't have any local dollars except the 911 use tax for metro safe?

And one last thing, since Jerry isn't certified by the state, his transmission on the police channels for his pony show last week was a blatant violation of KRS and probably some form of law in Indiana since he was talking to their dispatch.

Metro government doesn't own a mobile command center, the POLICE have one - in fact, unless they got rid of something, they have two. And it isn't anywhere close to being big enough to serve as a backup site.

Here's a question - how many people can even give the frequency for the national law enforcement mutual aid? (Hint, city police radios can't be programmed for it ....) A mobile command center isn't going to be a communications center - you can't do both of those in a single location the size of even the bus - those are two different functions. And a mobile command center can't be controlled by just law enforcement - a unified command structure needs room for any or all of the disciplines that would need to be represented - law enforcement, fire, EMS, EM, etc.