Posted on | March 19, 2013 |
BY JEFF HORSEMAN
It?s essential to officers? safety that non-Riverside County police and fire agencies sign on to a new radio communications network once it comes online, a county supervisor said Tuesday, March 19.
?I don?t want to see another officer lost and a child grow up without the benefit of having their father or mother come home to them at night,? said Supervisor John Tavaglione in discussing the need for police and firefighters throughout the county to be connected through the county?s Public Safety Enterprise Communications system.
The $172 million network will upgrade a radio network described by law enforcement as outdated and inadequate. It will add more than 50 radio towers and it is expected to boost radio coverage from 63 percent of the county to nearly 100 percent.
The network is designed to put every public safety agency in the county on the same page, communication-wise. The county is trying to convince cities with their own police and fire departments to sign up and share the operational costs, but some agencies are reluctant to do so until they know what subscribing to the system will cost them.
Questions about cost shouldn?t trump public safety, said Tavaglione, adding that other counties have radio systems allowing different agencies to talk instantaneously.
?It?s ridiculous that with the technology today, that our agencies are not communicating in a split second,? he said. ?(With the new network), we have that ability. But it?s going to take all our neighboring agencies to sign on with us.?
Tavaglione cited the Christopher Dorner manhunt and the 1980 Norco bank robbery, in which a Riverside sheriff?s deputy was shot and killed, as examples of the need for stronger communication. During the Norco robbery, a helicopter saw suspects waiting to ambush Deputy Jim Evans, but couldn?t get word to him before he was gunned down, Tavaglione said.
?We need to work very very hard in cooperation (and) put our egos aside ? and say, let?s look out for the benefit of public safety, our officers? safety and community safety and let?s work together among agencies,? he said.
?And I?d be happy ? to take the lead to work with other agencies and insist, not ask, but insist that these agencies come on board with us.?
Supervisor John Benoit, a former California Highway Patrol Officer, said he?d be willing to talk with city councils in his desert-area district about joining the network.
?We are required to recoup costs. But I think you can define costs in multiple ways,? Benoit said. ?And in reality, there?s a benefit to the county to have this kind of communication.?
The network is currently three years overdue and isn?t expected to go online until later this summer.
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