Auditor critical of work on state public safety radio system

Lets go back to the early 1990’s. Appalachian Power was in the process of building a wide area network that would cover from Columbus, Ohio to Chatham, VA. This would include coverage in the most difficult terrain in the State of Virginia. Appalachian Power approached the Virignia State Police (VSP) and asked if they would like to go together and build this system that they could easily share in an effort to save money. VSP said no. Appalachian Power’s approach would have saved the Virginia State Police around 200 Million dollars. Appalachian Power (AEP) continued with their plan and turned on their system—Ericsson 800 MHz Edacs. It is still in use today. AEP covers a wider territory than the VSP and has as more mobiles and portables than the State Police will ever think about. It worked for Appalachian Power, I think it could work for the State Police and 15 years sooner. Nextm lets go to 1999. I attended a “preliminary planning meeting” at the Hotel Roanoke about this system and the aspects of mobile data. They had consultants there that did not know VHF from UHF from 800 MHz. I told Major Henries from the VSP in 1999 at that meeting that the mobile data they were trying to implement would never work. He said that it was going to work and was not interested in any further comment. Lets drop back a minute to 1995. Pittsylvania County, Virginia was in the midst of an upgrade and hired Ram Communications Consultants (RCC) to study their system. RCC designed and specified a system that ONLY Motorola could provide. They even specified a specific brand that belonged to Motorola. Ericsson advised them that they could provide a 800 MHz Edacs system (like AEP). The former sheriff of Pittsylvania said with a resounding “NO” that he wanted Motorola. Motorola won the bid. The very DAY the system was turned on, there were problems. There have been coverage problems ever since and additional sites have been added. Pittsylvania is in the midst of a radio upgrade as we speak. They are sole-sourcing to Motorola….again. Lets get back to STARS. The VSP has been trying for years to accumulate enough VHF channels to support their system. They have deprived every locality in the State from expanding their VHF systems by “monopolizing” on every VHF channel they can find. Already, the system cannot accommodate the traffic, mobile data, or AVL (GPS) traffic. The system is not even done and it is already suffering from bandwidth and channel capacity issues. They are spending $28,000.00 per car to outfit them with a system that is already suffering. The VSP bought what they wanted. Their consultant, CTA of Lycnhburg, designed a system that avoided common sense, avoided good engineering practices, and avoided providing the VSP the system they should have considered. I told Major Henries at the planning meeting in Roanoke in 1999 “you will work hard on instaling this system, you will work hard at trying to make it operate, and 10 years after you start installing it, you will work hard at taking it out and installing something else” That statement brought lots of strange looks at the Hotel Roanoke in 1999. It does not seem strange now…its reality!! It used to be said in the industry “Nobody has ever been fired for buying Motorola” Its time to reconsider that. It looks like its time for a new saying “You could NOT have paid more, but you could have gotten BETTER”

10-4, be careful as the witch hunt has begun for those who are speaking out about this system.  Questions within the agency are already being asked about who gave out the information in the printed edition of the paper. Unless these critics of the State Police have to live with the day to day interaction with Motorola over this contract they will not understand the frustration of the people, like you, with what has been designed and bought for its users.  The idea of replacing the current in car computer unit with the one that Motorola is talking about is utterly shameful and the way it was presented in the article today totally gives the wrong impression.  The newest one is just as bad as the old one.  Contact any government agency that is currently using them for proof.  It is being accepted to avoid a law suit and will have to be replaced in 3 years time.

A message to Mr. Creigh Deeds:

Dear Sir,

I hope you have been paying attention to the headlines regarding VITA and now STARS. I know you are a good man and would be a good governor, but you must face the music. Your predecessors Warner and Kaine have done a pathetic job of managing the resources of this Commonwealth and have not held large, expensive contractors accountable.

While you and your party chastised James Gilmore for cutting the car tax, this poor fiscal management by Warner and Kaine has far out priced ANY fiscal policies of the Gilmore administration in its totality.

Virginians will not stand for poor fiscal management. Unless you step up to the plate and admit that your party has not held these contractors responsible and that poor fiscal policies of Democratic governors have cost billions of dollars, then you, sir, will lose the election.

I feel that this is only the tip of the iceberg regarding these issues, and hope you have a plan in place that shows how you will change the failed policies of the Warner and Kaine administrations.

Good day sir, and I look forward to hearing your opinion on these matters.

- A concerned non-partisan citizen

State Police Comms could have built a better system for half the money. Yet they were never given a chance. The “Stars” project management at State Police got in bed with Motorola while the whole thing was in the planning stages. The RFP was written slanted toward Motorola and Motorola was the only company that bid on the system.
Some of the staff at State Police and the Communications Division are the only reason any progress has been made in getting a working system.

Having worked with the old system and now with this one. I can assure you - this whole thing is a waste of money. The radio system is completely unreliable, the laptops are junk. Troopers buy their own cell phones to be able to talk to the dispatchers and their own data cards to have data access. The contract was written by Motorola for Motorola. The state of VA doesn’t have a leg to stand on. Warner gave us VITA and STARS. It will cost the taxpayers millions of dollars to undo this damage. Let’s hope it doesn’t cost a police officer more than that.