Floyd County communications groups dig in on law enforcement radio headaches

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Radio communications has been one of the most important developments in law enforcement in the last 100 years, putting officers almost instantly in touch with each other and with dispatchers and other emergency response personnel.

But that’s only true if the radios work, and in some cases in Floyd County, they don’t.

Members of the Floyd County Communications Advisory Committee discussed at their meeting this week problems that the Charles City Police Department, Floyd County Sheriff’s Office, county fire departments and other emergency responders have at various locations and times with their portable and vehicle-mounted radios.

The committee talked about hiring a company to do ride-alongs with deputies and police officers to determine where there are problems and come up with possible solutions.

At a meeting right after the advisory committee, the Floyd County 911 Service Board – which has some of the same members as the Communications Advisory Committee – approved funding the study.

Floyd County Dispatch Administrator John Gohr described an incident recently where Charles City police responded to an accident on 6th Street between Dave’s ​​Restaurant and Waverly Hill Park Dog Park.

“We had two officers who were outside, not inside the building, outside of their cars and in the middle of the street out in the open and they were trying to run the license place – neither one of them I could understand whatsoever. Dave’s Restaurant is line-of-sight right to the tower,” Gohr said, referring to the communications tower located at the City Hall Police Station.

“I asked them what they had for radios. One of them had one of the older radios but the other one had a newer one within the last five years, so I’m finding that it’s hit and miss all over,” Gohr said.

AMR ambulance can sometimes get 6 miles out of town “and we can’t communicate with them” on the county radio system, Gohr said.

Sheriff Jeff Crooks talked about a high-speed chase that started in Floyd County and ended up in a field near Dows.

“I lost all radio communications when I got to Allison,” Crooks said. “I had nothing. I had to call in cellphone to dispatch and said to just leave me on the line.”

He said he wasn’t part of the chase, but it was still important to know where his deputies were.

The state is encouraging Iowa law enforcement departments and other first responders to switch to the Iowa Statewide Interoperable Communications System (ISICS), which state troopers use and which is supposed to provide communications border to border in the state and link with other states as well, but the price tag for Floyd County would be about $4 million.

Crooks said he was looking at purchasing three portable ISICS radios so he would have one available for deputies on each shift, so they can communicate with the state system.

“The state system’s a great system. It’s a very expensive system, no doubt about that,” Crooks said.

Police Chief Hugh Anderson said that at the accident last week involving a Mennonite buggy that the state troopers responding to that had trouble with the ISICS system in that location near Colwell.

“There’s dead spots for everybody,” he said, adding that they’re finding the ISICS system doesn’t work in some buildings and companies are paying to install boosters in their buildings in case there is an emergency so law enforcement, fire and other responders can communicate.

“There’s challenges with everything,” Anderson said, but the county needs to find a solution that works better than what hey have now, he added.

Advisory committee Chair Randy Heitz asked the group if it was taking the right steps to find a solution.

“I believe we’re going in the right direction,” Crooks said. “But no one’s come back with a definitive answer of what the problem is.”

Gohr said he had received an email the day of the meeting, Wednesday, from Mark Clark, the president of Electronic Engineering, and Clark had also been in contact with the sheriff, Charles City police chief, and Sheriff’s Office Deputy Lt. Travis Bartz who has been doing some radio tests with a couple of loaner radios from Electronic Engineering.

Electronic Engineering is a Des Moines-based radio communications company that has an office in Mason City and other locations around Iowa, and sells and supports ISICS.

“I don’t feel they’re here to push spending the $4 million to go on their system, but they will actually come and look at the squad cars and what we have. I don’t think it’s a bad idea,” Gohr said.

The company offered to ride along with deputies and police officers for several hours and monitor radio traffic in the dispatch center at the courthouse and write up a report.

The company offered to do it for $1,250, which it said was half of what it usually charges, Anderson said.

“I think it’s a good idea,” Gohr said, and Anderson agreed.

Anderson was concerned whether two or three hours was long enough because it could be a period where little was happening, bur Gohr said they could look at the radio logs and have an officer go with a technician to the areas where they had identified problems, with hopefully another tech in the dispatch center. They could also look at the frequency programming on the radios to make sure they are accurate.

In the 911 Service Board meeting immediately following the Communications Advisory Committee, Chair Keith Starr said he would like that board to pay the $1,250 for the study, but also authorize a larger amount in case repairs or other solutions are identified so they can be done sooner than three months from now, when the next quarterly advisory committee and service board meetings will be held.

The board authorized paying up to $25,000 for the evaluation and any repairs, with Gohr authorized to decide what spending was appropriate. Gohr said he would notify Starr of anything he was spending.