Emergency radios still glitchy in Naperville, Aurora

New public safety radios in Aurora and Naperville malfunctioned almost 800 times between Dec. 1 and March 16, sometimes in dire police and fire situations when ineffective communication may have put lives at risk.

Authorities in both cities have been aware of problems with the new digital radio system since it went live on Dec. 1.

Those who use the radios — primarily police officers and firefighters — were instructed to report communication issues each time they occurred.

The Daily Herald obtained a list of those reports from both cities through a Freedom of Information Act request and found that while 790 radio issues were documented as of March 16, complaints have slowed in recent weeks.

Still, police and firefighters in both cities say any problem with emergency communication puts them, and sometimes the public, at unacceptable risk.

Officials in both communities say they continue to work with Florida-based Harris Corp., which sold them the system for a combined $21 million, to identify and fix remaining problems with dead spots, garbled communication and interference.

Two cases, now listed as resolved, indicate how poor communications put Aurora police officers at risk:

• From an Aurora police officer who lost his signal while executing a search warrant: “Myself as well as the entire unit did not have radio reception in the basement where amongst everything else, there were firearms and an alligator (yes an alligator).”

• From an Aurora police officer unable to communicate during a traffic stop: “Also during the stop, the other officer was getting the ‘no signal' tone. Kind of uncomforting considering the car we had stopped had three gang members in it who were just recently arrested for having a Tec 9 (semiautomatic firearm) in the car.”

The number of reported problems from both cities peaked at 65 during a five-day span in mid-January, but dropped to 22 between March 20 and 26, and to five between March 27 and 31, according to a memo from Dan Voiland, Naperville's communications director, who is now tracking the numbers for both municipalities.

Technology officials in both cities believe the drop in documented problems shows the fixes they've implemented are beginning to take effect, resulting in a more consistently performing system.

“Reporting of the issues is working,” Naperville Fire Chief Mark Puknaitis said. “We have not had a major issue in weeks.”

But while radio users from several departments say they began noticing improved performance in late March, some say the drop in reports doesn't necessarily mean fewer problems are occurring.

“We would hope the city does not take the fact that less complaints are coming in means the system is working,” said Vince Clark, president of Naperville's patrol officers union. “They have to have some other way to gauge it. Eventually, officers just get frustrated and stop reporting it.”

Listing problems

Naperville and Aurora began compiling all reported radio problems into one list Jan. 18. Before then, the cities kept separate lists, with Naperville radio users reporting about 290 problems between Dec. 1 and Jan. 17, and their Aurora counterparts logging about 50.

“The number of reported issues has always been lower on the Aurora side than the Naperville side,” said Aurora's Chief Technology Officer Ted Beck.

That's especially apparent in the case of the Aurora Fire Department, which has documented five problems during the entire four months the system has been in use. “On our end, (the radio system is) doing what it's supposed to do,” Aurora Fire Chief Hal Carlson said.

While Aurora fire officials say the system is working, Naperville firefighters documented the most problems — 255 — between Jan. 18 and March 16. Before then, when the cities tracked problems independently, the lists did not always designate which department reported which problems.

Despite the high number of reports, Dan Smith, president of the Naperville Professional Firefighters union, said his co-workers are not experiencing extra radio troubles.

“I don't think it's a (case) of us having more problems; I think it's just us reporting it more often,” Smith said.

Voiland said he's noticed repeated reports from the fire department at the same buildings and locations.

“There's a lot of things that, while they're the same problem, it was reported multiple times,” Voiland said.

Naperville police also logged more problems between Jan. 18 and March 16 — 103 — than their Aurora counterparts, who noted 66 in that time.

“I just don't think there were as many to report in Aurora as there were in Naperville,” Aurora police Chief Greg Thomas said. “I don't think it was Aurora's reluctance to talk about it.”

The difference in the number of reported problems may be caused by higher amounts of radio interference in Naperville than Aurora, Beck said. Naperville has more “carriers,” or entities such as trucking companies and cellphone service providers, all competing for the same radio frequencies in a more limited space than Aurora.

The cities ran tests for interference for about two weeks and now are analyzing the results to determine the cause and how to remove it, Beck said.

Fixing glitches

As radio users encounter and track problems, city technology officials and Harris Corp. employees are working to troubleshoot issues of spotty coverage, garbled communication and outside interference.

Adding longer antennas to handheld radios, changing software at dispatch centers, balancing audio levels and adding interference resistance devices to police cars solved many radio issues by April 1, according to a memo from Naperville's Voiland.

And the interference analysis should help officials begin to understand the cause of recurring problems, Beck said.

“We need to find our locations that don't live up to the standards that we need and find ways to remediate that,” he said.

The process of reporting and addressing problems must continue for many months before radio users and supervisors gain confidence the system will function effectively in all situations, Puknaitis said.

And that's the plan, technology officials say.

“Harris continues to work diligently with our customers in Naperville and we are pleased that the Naperville radio system users are experiencing marked improvement,” Victoria Dillon, communications director for Harris Public Safety and Professional Communications said in a statement.

Biweekly meetings between Harris employees and representatives from both cities will continue, as will efforts to improve radio performance and eliminate interference.

“Just because you don't have an issue for two or three weeks doesn't mean that the problems are all gone,” Puknaitis said.

But even the Naperville firefighters who collectively reported the most problems now say they are noticing improvements.

“I'm glad to see there's some real progress made,” Smith said. “Definitely we're noticing it. There is a little bit better coverage and the messages are coming across more clearly. Before we were experiencing garbled communication and now it seems more clear.”

Naperville even has a success story of an encounter in which the Harris radios functioned better than the old Motorola ones.

When a Naperville patrol officer and sergeant were involved in shooting an Aurora man who rushed at them with a knife March 22, the radios worked as expected, even though the Ogden Avenue apartment complex where the shooting took place practically was a radio dead spot under the old system, Voiland said.

“We had issues before, but during that incident, everything worked fine,” he said.

Radio woes: By the numbers

Aurora and Naperville officials have tracked problems police and fire employees have experienced with the new digital radio system since switching over Dec. 1. At first the cities recorded issues separately. But on Jan. 18, they started a combined list of all instances when radios did not function properly, listing the time, location and nature of each problem. Here are some highlights:

• 790: Total reported problems with the Harris radio systems in Aurora and Naperville

• 340: Problems reported between Dec. 1 and Jan. 17, tracked separately by Aurora and Naperville

• 450: Problems reported between Jan. 18 and April 2 including:

156: Reports of losing signal in a building

80: Reports of losing signal outside

42: Reports of radios not receiving transmissions when in proximity to other radios

28: Reports of dispatchers unable to hear communication from radio users in the field

26: Reports of losing coverage in the back of an ambulance

118: Other reported problems, including but not limited to garbled communications, fluctuating volume levels, communications issues in the Edward Hospital ambulance bay and other dispatch issues

<b>Timeline of radio woes</b>

Since Naperville and Aurora began tracking reported radio problems on one combined list, the number of issues reported each week has ranged from 65 to 5. Here's a weekly breakdown of the number of reports each week from both municipalities, beginning Jan. 18. The first and last weeks listed contain reports from fewer than seven days.

Jan. 18 to Jan. 22: 65 (five days)

Jan. 23 to Jan. 29: 46

Jan. 30 to Feb. 5: 35

Feb. 6 to Feb. 12: 62

Feb. 13 to Feb. 19: 51

Feb. 20 to Feb. 26: 46

Feb. 27 to March 5: 36

March 6 to March 12: 46

March 13 to March 19: 36

March 20 to March 26: 22

March 27 to March 31: 5 (five days)