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DPS gets $250K to upgrade communication system
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Posted on Aug 24 1999
The Office of the Governor has announced that some $250,000 will be made available to the Department of Public Safety to make sure that its radio communication equipment is Y2K compliant.
According to Bob Webb, special assistant for telecommunications, the funding will come from the Office of Insular Affairs’ technical assistance program.
“We are doing everything to make sure that everything will work by January 1 as we have listed down areas which are considered mission critical,” he said.
DPS is one of the government agencies which has been identified to be needing immediate attention considering that it involves 911 calls and Smartnet communication system.
Failure to upgrade these systems will hamper the delivery of services because police cars, ambulance and fire trucks will be not able to respond to emergency calls.
Currently DPS is using the Motorola Smartnet System which is over eight years old. An evaluation of the system by Communication Specialists Inc. (CSI) in December 1998 revealed that the SmartNet System, including the repeater and console, is not Y2K compliant.
The Emergency Management Office and CSI have alerted DPS that the SmartNet System has been deteriorating since February 1999 and will get worse by September 1999.
The console at DPS has been out of service since April 1999, putting at risks the lives of police officers. There were incidents in the past of communication system breakdown at DPS when its repeater and console conked out.
DPS has invested over $30,000 since October 1998 to repair and maintain these systems, but the agency has not been able to restore the console in proper condition because it requires replacement. Upgrading the console would also prevent a possibility of computer shutdown brought about by the millennium bug.
DPS wants its current $14.3 million budget maintained for FY 2000 but the Office of Budget and Management has only earmarked $13.2 million, which is still higher than the $12.4 million spending limit appropriated for the current fiscal year.
