Authorizing City Council's Committee on Public Safety to hold a public hearing to investigate and determine the cause of the repeated failures of the City of Philadelphia's Police Department Radio System.

WHEREAS,

On Tuesday, April 13, 2010, the Philadelphia police radio system failed thus compromising the safety and well-being of police officers and the public; and

WHEREAS

, The police radio system went down while Motorola was performing service on the radio tower located at 31st and Grays Ferry Avenue; and

WHEREAS,

Motorola had made assurances, prior to commencing their work, that there would be no interruption in service; and

WHEREAS

, Despite those assurances, there were outages in the South Division, the 12th Police District in the Southwest Division, and the 16th Police District in the West Division; and

WHEREAS,

Prior to this most recent outage

,

on the evening of Wednesday, March 24, 2010, shortly before 10:00 pm, Philadelphia police officers on patrol again experienced serious difficulties with the police radio system; and

WHEREAS,

The officers, that evening, were unable to communicate with the emergency dispatchers; and

WHEREAS,

Members of the Philadelphia Police Department

have had their confidence in the radio communication system seriously eroded; and

WHEREAS

, 62 million dollars were spent on a “State of the Art” communication system that has now failed numerous times; and

WHEREAS,

It is critical to the safety and well-being of residents and visitors as well as of police officers that problems in the police radio system be thoroughly investigated and resolved to prevent any such occurrence in the future.

NOW BE IT RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA,

That it authorizes City Council's Committee on Public Safety to hold a public hearing to investigate and determine the cause of the repeated failures of the City of Philadelphia's Police Department Radio Communication System.

End