OVER AND OUT
First responders questioning why ‘horrible’ communication system has left them in danger for years
TRENTON » Radio silence!
Police on Thursday were hindered from foiling a $10,000 holdup of the Wells Fargo Bank on the 1110 block of South Broad Street around 2 p.m. because of radio transmission failures at the worst time.
It isn’t the first time first responders have raised hackles about the city’s woeful radio transmission failures to Mayor Reed Gusciora’s administration but nothing has been done about the ongoing public safety crisis. Internally, Trenton officials have discussed bringing legal action against the contracted radio service provider, but those threats have remained empty.
Emails obtained through an OPRA request by The Trentonian show radio problems go back to at least 2015, predating the current mayor and the current radio service provider, but since MPS Communications took over in 2016, complaints became more frequent.
Now police officers are hoping the administration acts after Thursday’s failed brazen bank job, in which the suspect, a white man wearing glasses and a blue hoodie, passed a note to a bank teller demanding $10,000 and then pedaled away on a bike as an off-duty cop desperately tried to radio for backup, according to police records and sources.
The off-duty Trenton Police officer was working an overtime security detail inside the bank, sources said, and was “trying to transmit, however, due to poor radio communications dispatch could not understand what was being said,” according to internal police records.
The suspect got away before backup officers arrived, hopping on a bike riding south down Liberty Street, according to the dispatch report.
A police source who spoke on condition of anonymity, in order to speak freely about the ongoing issues, said the radio system “sucks.” The bank radio transmissions sounded like someone was speaking through a rustled paper bag.
“They couldn’t hear sh*t. We didn’t know if it was a fight at school or what,” the source said. “You know if it came out ‘bank robbery,’ everybody and their brother would have been there.”
The source added: “There’s dead zones throughout the city with this radio system, and the administration knows about it and nothing’s been done. It’s terrible. If it’s not fixed, somebody’s gonna get hurt.”
The city, under then-Mayor Eric Jackson and city police director Ernest Parrey Jr., entered into an $774,000 emergency contract with MPS Communications in 2016 for muchneeded radio equipment for the city’s first responders, including portable and mobile radios and installation.
In 2017, the council approved another $529,000 contract with the same Trenton-based radio communications company for a private carrier station and infrastructure for Trenton Police.
The contract, running through the end of this year, included an option for a twoyear extension. The legislative body voted in June 2018 5-0 to approve the $264K extension despite repeated complaints about the company’s inability to address repeated system failures.
A message left Thursday for President Steve Budassi at MPS Communications — whose headquarters is three blocks from the Wells Fargo that was held up — was not immediately returned.
Sources said Budassi outbid major communications like Motorola to get the city contract. The unconfirmed scuttlebutt in the department is that “somebody must have got paid at City Hall for us to get this sh**ty deal,” a police source said. “We’ve gone back 30 years in technology somehow. When I started decades ago, no matter where I was, that radio worked. Now, it’s a guessing game whether your radio will work or not.”
Gusciora’s spokesman also did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the radio problems, though city officials have privately kicked around the idea of suing MPS Communications. They were apparently talked off the ledge after company reps agreed to work with the city to fix the problems.
Still, the issues persist, highlighted by the $10K bank job, and are getting “progressively worse,” according to recent dispatch reports obtained by The Trentonian.
“For the past few days, the radio transmissions have been very poor and becoming progressively worse,” dispatch supervisor Marcella Tapia wrote in one report. “The radio transmissions have been very garbled, unreadable or does not transmit at all. The failing radio system is clearly a safety issue for police officers and firemen/women and a constant stressor for dispatch who are always concerned for officers and fire personnel safety. This is becoming a greater concern due to the more frequent radio issues that have not been resolved despite the several complaints from officers, firemen/women and dispatchers.”
Another radio failure prevented police from giving live updates on an unfolding foot pursuit with a suspect along Centre Street. According to the dispatch report, a detective was trying to communicate with other officers but “street units were unable to hear his transmissions.”
On Sept. 17, police radio transmissions were also “horrible” during a reported fight between two men, one possibly armed with a handgun, near Beatty Street.
Street crime detectives stopped a vehicle to investigate, and the driver sped off striking Detective Nicholas Mahan, according to the dispatch log. Detective Sgt. Jason Asbury pursued the driver, Terrence Perry, who struck six cars before losing control of the vehicle and hitting a building near South Broad Street and Cedar Lane in Hamilton, and bailing out on foot, police records show.
Perry was eventually apprehended following a short foot chase, and cops recovered a 9 mm Glock. Astbury relayed to dispatch the “radio transmissions were horrible the entire length of Adeline Street.”
City firefighters also experienced a serious radio failure during a structure fire last week in which one firefighter sustained minor injuries, sources said. The radio gave out without warning in the middle of the blaze, the sources said.
“The safety of our officers is paramount,” said Trenton Police spokesman, Capt. Stephen Varn. “We’re doing everything we can and exploring other options to ensure our officers have the proper equipment to operate safely on the streets.”
City fire director Derrick Sawyer did not immediately respond to a phone call seeking comment on the radio kerfuffles.