Police want action on non-working radios

About half a dozen Columbia Falls police officers showed up at the Jan. 20 Columbia Falls City Council meeting to hammer home the point that their digital radio equipment doesn’t work properly, posing a serious safety risk to the officers and public alike.

Officer Craig McConnell said the matter was well documented and had been reported many times to the city. Police chief Dave Perry and city manager Susan Nicosia had made efforts to address the issue, he said.

“We don’t want a Band-Aid solution,” he said.

Councilor Mike Shepard, who served on the 911 Board when the county dispatch system was updated to include digital communications, said it wasn’t clear how the problem could be fixed.

“We bought the radios we were told to buy,” he said. “You have my complete sympathy.”

McConnell said he believed the problem was not the radios but the Flathead’s mountainous landscape.

“Digital radios work OK in Nebraska and Great Falls,” he said. “We need to bring in some experts. We’re getting good equipment, but it’s not working.”

When Shepard asked if new radio equipment installed on Mount Aeneas had helped, McConnell noted that the Kalispell Police Department had run into serious problems south of town just two days earlier.

“They went to analog,” he said.

Columbia Falls fire chief Rick Hagen said local firefighters were able to communicate using their analog radios. New equipment installed at the Badrock and Columbia Falls fire stations also helped, he said.

The city was willing to buy more equipment, Nicosia said, including mobile repeaters to install in police vehicles, if it would make a difference.

“Even the experts can’t agree on the problem,” she said.

Mayor Don Barnhart noted that the failure of the ballot issue last fall to fund 911 dispatch capital expenses had made the situation even worse.

“We need to bring in a communication systems expert,” Shepard said. “It’s got to be something simple technologically.”

The council agreed to send a letter requesting action on the problem to the county’s 911 Board.

“All I know to do is to put pressure on people to get something done,” Barnhart said.