Nov. 04--The Palm Beach County Inspector General's Office said Thursday the release of its long-awaited report on the OpenSky police radio system is "imminent."
West Palm Beach spent $5 million on the system but has not spent the millions more to activate it, after city staff said it could work poorly and endanger the officers it was meant to assist.
The report is expected to shed light on whether the consortium of cities that bought into the system and operate it followed proper procedures to bid out, evaluate and select it over competing radio systems.
Meanwhile, Las Vegas officials announced last week that they have bailed on an OpenSky police radio system for which they'd paid $42 million, because of fears of public safety problems. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Tuesday that Las Vegas is dropping OpenSky.
Clark County, Nev., Sheriff Doug Gillespie told the newspaper that the county gave Melbourne-based Harris Corp. "every opportunity" to make the system work. "It's just not a reliable system," Gillespie said.
In Palm Beach County, a consortium including Palm Beach Gardens, Juno Beach, Jupiter, the town of Palm Beach and the Palm Beach County School Board continues to run the system. Palm Beach Gardens Police Col. Ernie Carr, who directs the local OpenSky consortium, said Thursday that the system works.
"We're not having any issues at all with it," Carr said. "There are issues with digital communications period in this country. It's a new technology and they're working through issues with all vendors."
But the future of West Palm Beach's police radio system has been on hold for more than a year. Since taking office last year, Mayor Jeri Muoio has criticized OpenSky and the consortium. A city spokesman said Thursday that the West Palm Beach City Commission will discuss police radios at a Nov. 19 meeting.
Gary Brandenburg, a lobbyist for Motorola who is trying to persuade West Palm Beach to leave Harris, said Thursday that the Las Vegas system "is the exact same system" that West Palm Beach invested in. Most cities and towns in Palm Beach County use Motorola.
In September, Muoio said West Palm Beach had met with officials from OpenSky vendor Harris about the possibility of remaining in the consortium but using newer P25 radios made by Harris. City commissioners have refused to make a decision until Harris agrees to a full test of the system.
Muoio said Harris representatives have acknowledged that OpenSky will not work in West Palm Beach, in part because its radio signals could be blocked by the city's dense cluster of commercial buildings.
But Victoria Dillon, spokeswoman for Harris, said Friday that the company is "committed to our customers and being able to service them for their need, and that applies in every location where we have our systems."
On top of the $5 million West Palm Beach has spent on antennas and towers, equipment that could still be used if the city stays with Harris, the city pays the consortium up to $170,000 per year. If the city dropped out of the group, the cost for the remaining consortium members could rise more than 70 percent. In Palm Beach Gardens, the cost would rise from $70,000 to $120,000 per year.
The Palm Beach Post first reported in May 2011 that West Palm officials had buried reports documenting OpenSky's problems in 2009 and 2010. The sharply critical reports from the city's technical staff described dead spots, calls that didn't go through, jury-rigged connections, poor coverage and the difficulty of operating a proprietary system as most agencies move toward an open platform that eases communication between agencies.
Then-Police Chief Delsa Bush, who advocated for converting the city's radios to the OpenSky system, silenced the technical team and ordered that they play no part in the conversion. Bush resigned after arguments with Muoio over the issue.
Copyright 2012 - The Palm Beach Post, Fla.
