Deschutes 911 wrestling with radio problems fix

The clock is ticking for the Deschutes County 911 Service District and its radio system provider, Harris, to fix reception problems that have many in and out of law enforcement concerned.

County commissioners were updated on the radio situation at a work session on Wednesday by Steve Reinke, director of the service district.

Before Reinke gave his presentation, commissioners expressed frustration with not being updated on the situation sooner.

“I was kind of told things were going to be worked out — ‘don’t be too concerned.’ And it really wasn’t until I was contacted by the Bend police chief about how it (radio system) was working for them,” Commissioner Phil Henderson said.

Colleague Tammy Baney said the problem isn’t with people calling dispatch, but officers trying to connect with dispatchers when they’re out responding to a call.

She said the question is what is the solution to fix the problem as quickly as possible.

“I think we can spend time talking on when did we know, what happened. The debrief, I think will be important one for us to make sure that there are lessons that we learned here,” Baney said. “Most important to me is how do we get our first responders the best service on the ground, and what’s the fastest way to do that.”

In January, Central Oregon law enforcement agencies expressed concerns with the new digital system which launched last July.

Those agencies cited the radio system’s problems as a public safety issue.

The Bend police union filed a complaint with Oregon OSHA, citing several occasions when officers were involved in fights and pursuits, but could not call for help because of faulty radio connections.

Reinke said they’re looking at three options in the west Bend area, where they can build another tower, which could help with this problem.

He said the county will need to cut through some red tape with the Federal Aviation Administration to get the tower built.

He added that engineers are looking at borrowing a tower from ODOT that they can put on the west side, but he said they’ll conduct tests to see if that would even work.

Reinke said the service provider found up to 30 issues that needed to be resolved, ranging from terrain to technology and programming.

“It’s like peeling an onion,” he said.

Engineers fixing one issue also find something ese that needs to be resolved.

“This is a systemwide problem,” Reinke added, adding that it could take another month until theradio issue is solved.

“We’re very unhappy that things have degraded to the point to where they are,” Reinke said, “and we are in a position now to where certainly there could be other options, but those options take a considerable amount of time to deploy. We need Harris and expect Harris and are relying on Harris to fix the system, to make it work the way it’s supposed to.”

County commissioners have asked to meet with officials from Harris in person, and have set up a Feb. 28 deadline to tackle the radio system issues.