'They'll just shut off': New Montco police radios have problems

Montgomery County's $36.4 million upgrade of its police-radio system has encountered a glitch: Some of the new emergency radios are faulty and are being sent back to the manufacturer, officials said Thursday.

Some police radios distributed this year were shutting off unexpectedly and must be returned to the manufacturer, Motorola Solutions, said John Corcoran, the county's deputy director of public safety.

"They will just turn off for no reason," Corcoran said. "They'll just shut off arbitrarily, and they don't make any sound or give any kind of notice to the field user that they're doing that, and that's a huge problem."

The county bought 3,800 radios from Motorola Solutions, Corcoran said, 2,500 of them the model with the shut-off problems.

Montgomery County had distributed 300 of those, and Corcoran said about 30 malfunctioned.

Josh Stein, the county's first deputy solicitor, said similar problems had occurred with Motorola radios across the country, including in cities as large as Atlanta.

Corcoran said the company determined the problem is with radios manufactured during a specific period.

The rest of Montgomery County's new radios will not be distributed until the problem is resolved.

"It will delay the roll-out of those radios by about five months," Stein said.

Stein said Motorola was repairing the radios at no cost to the county and extending the warranty for one year.

In a statement Thursday, a Motorola spokesman said the company is "working very closely with county officials to fix those specific devices," and is also "proactively examining" all 3,800 radios that the county purchased.

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