City plans to renew Motorola contract

Since being put into operation in 2002, Philadelphia's $62 million emergency radio system has been plagued with problems - from systemwide failures to blocked calls for police and firefighters.

Nonetheless, the city wants to extend its contract with Motorola Corp. for four years and $34.5 million.

City officials say it is the least expensive choice. Unions for the police and firefighters agree, although with reservations about the system's reliability.

"I certainly have concerns about the Motorola system," Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said, "but quite frankly, in light of the current fiscal situation, it's probably wiser to extend the contract and upgrade as opposed to trying to buy an entirely new system."

He added that he was not aware of any competing radio system "that was 100 percent reliable."

Under a bill introduced in City Council last month, Philadelphia would hire Motorola to upgrade its system, purchased in 1999, from a circuit-based network to one using an Internet protocol. The work would begin when the current contract expired in 2010.

Councilman Frank Rizzo, who over the years has been most vigilant about holding Motorola accountable for problems, said scrapping the system for a new one would be far more costly.

Motorola is one of only a handful of manufacturers of emergency radio equipment, Rizzo said, and it uses proprietary technology, so "you can't add other vendors' parts." Short of replacing the system, the only way to improve it is to work with Motorola, he said.

Deputy Mayor Everett Gillison, who handles public-safety matters, called the proposed contract "the best deal we can get for the city."

Much of the cost, he said, would be covered by the statewide "911 Fund" - money set aside from monthly phone bills for emergency-communication costs.

Steve Gorecki, a spokesman for Motorola, deferred all questions on the contract proposal to city officials.

The police and firefighter unions say improvements to the communications system are overdue.

"We need to do something, but I'm just wary of any upgrade by the same people who gave us the radio system in the first place," said John McGrody, a Fraternal Order of Police lodge vice president who investigates radio complaints from the police force.

Since 2005, when the city said it had eliminated problems with the radio system after an audit, there have been 20 major incidents, McGrody said.

The problems have included officers unable to transmit and dispatchers unable to hear messages, he said. The latest was a 40-minute outage of half the system on July 22. Motorola reported last month that the problem had been due to human error.

"There have been persistent, long-ranging, multiple failures, to the point where our officers on the street have no confidence in the radio system," McGrody said.

David Kearney, a paramedic for Local 22 of the International Association of Fire Fighters who monitors radio matters, said the upgrades would extend the coverage area of emergency radios.

For firefighters, this is critical, he said. Under the plan, Motorola would provide mobile units that allow the radios to work in high-rise towers and in basements or transit tunnels.

"It's still a tremendously disgusting amount of money," Kearney said, "but our best option is to fix what we have."