ByBob Walsh
One would think that the
formerly great state of California, the home of Silicon Valley, could
roll out a comm system. One would be wrong.
They are now flushing a relatively new $450 million system because it just doesn't work.
Back
in 2018 a massive fire ripped thru NorCal, destroying whole communities
and killing 80 people. The interruption of cell service over a wide
area due to the destruction of towers was an issue. The CA EOS decided
they needed to come up with a new emergency communication system. So
far, so good. They came up with a design and literally nobody else
used. They broke the state up into four sectors and, between 2019 and
2025, built out the next gen 911 system which included (at least in
theory) new, advanced caller location services.
Last
year EOS tried to use the system. It didn't work. It only activated
in a small fraction of the 911 dispatch centers. The rollout of the
project was paused and the project director, a fellow named Budge
Currier, bailed out of EOS.
The
state has now decided they will go with something that pretty much
everybody else is using successfully. The EOS has issued a request for
proposals for next year to vendors.
Now
I do have some knowledge of how new systems were approached in the past
by state agencies. My knowledge base is stale and much more
operational than technical. In my experience the contacts between the
government agencies and the contractors is commonly a home-boy hookup
involving staff whose primary qualifications are who they are related to
or who they are having sex with rather than any knowledge of what now
exists or what is needed. The state also is fond of multiple vendor
operations so that the hardware people and the software people can point
fingers and blame each other when things don't work and issues mostly
don't get fixed.
It would
be nice to think that they might get it right this time after pouring
$450 million down the shitter. I am not betting on that happening.
1 comment:
The Houston Police have had the same patrol radio system that they initiated in 1980. Not to say that they haven't evolved into encrypted systems for SWAT, CID and Special Services because they have. Patrol stayed with VHF dispatch because it wasn't broken. They saved millions.
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