[Scan-DC] California: Bay Area Cell Towers Disrupt Police Radio Network

[Charles Watson]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle, 8/21/12
 
Oakland officials said cell phone towers operated by AT&T Wireless have been interfering with the city's public safety communications frequency and causing radio failures among police and firefighters on city streets.  AT&T, notified by the city of the problem last week, is cooperating and has partially disabled 16 towers.  The towers constantly interfered with the radios, but the problems became particularly pronounced when a police car was within a quarter to a half mile of a tower, said David Cruise, Oakland's public safety systems adviser.
 
The city's public safety radio communications system has suffered repeated failures.  Officers routinely have been unable to connect to dispatchers or to communicate with other officers.  Cruise emphasized that cell tower interference was only one part of the city's examination.  "Our investigation is continuing," Cruise said.  "This is not the end of it, for sure.  There are plenty more issues we're looking at."  Cruise said the city will be looking at cell phone towers of other companies, particularly T-Mobile, which uses a frequency that might also interfere with police radios.