Editorial: No abrupt action in radio mess

Tuesday, May 20, 2003 | 9:07 a.m.

The Nevada Highway Patrol has a lot of explaining to do regarding the botched installation of an upgraded radio system used by its troopers. The $15 million system allows troopers to communicate with each other, with the NHP's dispatch center and with other law enforcement agencies. Planning for the upgrade began around 1993 when the NHP documented the need for a faster system capable of handling more radio traffic. The 1997 and 1999 Legislatures appropriated money and when the system was activated in 2000, it delivered exactly what the NHP had wanted. Unfortunately, the whole system was illegal.

Neither administrators with the Nevada Highway Patrol, nor anyone with Motorola Inc., the company hired to design and build the upgraded radio system, had applied to the FCC for licenses to operate on the system's new frequencies. How could any law enforcement agency -- radio communications are an integral part of their work -- overlook such a rudimentary step? How could Motorola build a system using frequencies that had not yet been licensed? And how could this go undetected by the FCC? It wasn't until last summer, when the NHP finally sought permits, that the FCC even realized what was going on.

Now the FCC has ordered the troopers to abandon their new frequencies by June 9. This would force the NHP to mothball its expensive new system and re-activate its old one, which was obsolete 10 years ago and is certainly not a match for today's needs. The FCC should grant a grace period at least until its own investigation -- which could result in heavy fines against the state -- and one being conducted by the NHP are complete. The people who years ago fouled up should be the ones to bear the consequences, not the troopers in the field who need the best communications available.