Dispatchers and Radio Systems

[TrainCop]

Hate to throw out a dumb question, but I'm still fairly new at this. Our department has a truly awful radio system. On the days that it works there are HUGE dead zones or areas where the distortion makes traffic unreadable. Sometimes the system will go down two or three times during a shift.

Added to this is the fact that our dispatchers are atrocious. When the system is working fine we often have to repeat our unit ID and call two or three times. It is not uncommon for officers to call out never get acknowledgement from radio. They seem to have real trouble remembering an officer's location when the call gets hot.

My questions are this. A: Is this common in most departments? I understand that mistakes are made, but this is well beyond the occasional slip up. B: Is there anything else I can do before an officer ends up dead as a result of this?

I've discussed this with management some and they agree it is a problem, but say it's something for the political masters to decide since they'll have to get funding for a new system. I've started keeping a log of radio failures in case the worst happens. Has anybody else been through this and effected positive change? Any advice is appreciated.

TrainCop

[m*m]

It seems you have two different problems with the radio system. This causes problems when trying to direct blame as to how the transmission was handled.

1.) Quality of the radio system itself.
2.) Quality of the person at the console.

It would appear to me that you really couldn't blame the problem in it's entirety on the dispatcher when the system being utilized is in such poor condition. It should be determined whether the transmission was receivable by the dispatcher first and once it has then an inquiry should be made as to why the dispatcher didn't respond or acknowledge the transmission.

In contrast, it's not unusual for dispatchers to sometimes drift off into never never land from time to time. I've been with two different agencies, both with 500+ officers and the problem persists in both. My feelings are that dispatchers are underpaid and it's hard to get the best personnel when working on such a tight budget. Departments seem to "settle" for what they can get regardless of the qualifications. Dangerous for officers it may be but since when has that been number one on a politicians list of worries?


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m*m

[This message has been edited by m*m (edited 05-01-2000).]