Before the directors of CREST spend millions upgrading the capital region鈥檚 emergency communications system, they should take a thorough look at the system that has been plagued with problems since it was launched 10 years ago. It wouldn鈥檛 be prudent to put new tires on the old jalopy if the engine isn鈥檛 firing on all cylinders.
The board of the Capital Region Emergency Service Telecommunications network is proposing to borrow $24.5 million for a major upgrade to the system that serves about 50 regional agencies, including emergency responders.
There鈥檚 no question improvements are needed 鈥� this is the system that former Victoria police chief Jamie Graham called 鈥渄angerous.鈥�
鈥淭o call it an absolute disgrace where we鈥檙e at right now would be an understatement,鈥� Graham said at a joint police board and council meeting in November 2013. 鈥淭his is a dangerous radio system. We have officers who are at risk because of this radio system.鈥�
Created in 2003 at a cost of $17 million, CREST connects all emergency-response personnel 鈥� including police, fire and ambulance 鈥� in the region鈥檚 13 municipalities.
While radios have worked well in suburban and rural areas, Victoria police have long complained about poor reception in the dense downtown core.
Faults in the communications system were cited during the coroner鈥檚 inquest into the 2007 murder-suicide in which Peter Lee, 38, killed his wife, their six-year-old son and his wife鈥檚 parents. Officers said their CREST radios offered spotty and sometimes non-existent coverage at the Oak Bay home.
Even after CREST installed $10 million worth of upgrades in 2008 and 2009, there were still what Graham called 鈥渂ig dead spots鈥� in parts of Victoria.
That means many officers work in two-person cars in case there鈥檚 an emergency and they are unable to call for backup.
The system鈥檚 VHF radios can transmit and receive over long distances, but VHF doesn鈥檛 do a good job of penetrating concrete and steel. Among the changes in the proposed upgrade would be adding a new 700-MHz spectrum, set aside specifically for public-safety workers, to the existing VHF radio spectrum.
CREST general manager Gord Horth calls the 700-MHz spectrum 鈥渢he sweet spot for wireless,鈥� and says the higher frequency will penetrate buildings better.
The upgrade, if approved, would come in phases, with about $10 million in infrastructure upgrades and replacement of radios used by emergency services in Oak Bay, Saanich, Victoria and Esquimalt next year. That would be followed by a further $14.5 million in improvements between 2016 and 2018, with the goal of introducing a new network in Victoria鈥檚 downtown by 2018, using the 700-MHz spectrum.
As plans for improvement were being explained to Victora councillors in 2013, Horth said that 48 of the 49 agencies involved were satisfied with the system. He told councillors CREST was meeting the threshold of 97 per cent reliability. 鈥淣o radio system gives 100 per cent coverage,鈥� he said.
A 97 per cent reliability rate is excellent in most endeavours, but a three per cent failure rate is too high when public safety and lives are at stake.
The $24.5 million proposed for an upgrade is almost equal to the amount that has already been put into the system. CREST directors should examine closely what has gone wrong in the past to ensure the system works better in the future. They need to be certain they are not putting patches on an old blanket, and that the upgrading will not leave holes in coverage.
