The tragedy is that shortchanging the police and firefighters with ineffective tools - like the Motorola system that once again broke down this week - not only puts those workers at risk, but also makes the entire city unsafe.

The citywide Motorola radio system, which has already cost taxpayers $62 million, crashed for more than 40 minutes Monday night. Cops were forced to scramble back to their stations and partner up for safety.

This was just the latest glitch in a system that has been plagued with problems. Since it was introduced six years ago, the system has gone down at least 16 times.

Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey ranted about this in a press conference yesterday and vowed that he's going to get it fixed. We're glad that he's making a stink about this, and we hope along the way to finding someone to get this done, he takes names of those responsible for letting this four year debacle continue.

Usually, Philadelphia's problem-plagued police radio system gets some attention when it breaks down - a regular, life-threatening occurrence since 2002. There have been hearings in the past, desk thumping, and a slew of excuses why the $62 million system was so unreliable. But nothing has really changed.

From a taxpayer perspective, it's inexcusable that so much money has been spent on a system plagued with endless problems. So we're relieved that this incident has triggered a review by the administration of the contract between the city and Motorola. It's unclear whether there are grounds for a lawsuit here, but we hope all options are explored.

(In 2006, civil suits were filed on behalf of two firefighters who died in a fire when their radios failed them.)

However, lawsuits won't solve the underlying problem. The only question is, what is the best course of action? Updating the current system will, according to some estimates, exceed $30 million, nearly half its originally cost.

The only solution may be to purchase entirely new equipment. If that's what it takes, the Nutter administration should not hesitate.

Nor should it hestitate to spend what it takes to get the job done. For example, Los Angeles' police radio system cost that city $235 million. That leads us to wonder whether the root of our problem is one of corner-cutting.

Police equipment and public safety can't - and shouldn't - be done on the cheap. And while the mayor increased the budget for more police officers to be hired, this effort will be undermined if they don't have the equipment to do the job.

We can't help noting that in the same week this radio incident happened, the police commissioner announced that he was going to explore raising money from private sources for Segways and other equipment. We wonder: Is it time for the city to re-examine its priorities when it comes to outfitting the police and firefighters and ensuring public safety? Providing public safety on the cheap is only worthy of cities who think life is cheap. *