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HPD’s communication
breakdown wasn’t
under warranty

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

The two faulty computer cards that caused the Honolulu Police Department's $20 million communications system to go down for more than five hours Jan. 19 are designed to last "several years," according to an official with the system's manufacturer.

"The components that malfunctioned have a lead time of failure that is measured in years, not hours or days," Peter Fiorey, local representative for Ericsson Private Radio Systems, told the City Council's Planning and Public Safety Committee yesterday.

"While we don't expect those boards to fail, we do know that anything made by man or woman will fail and that's why we have spare cards of that type here on the island," Fiorey said.

Pressed after the meeting, Fiorey said the computer cards have a life span of "closer to three years."

Technicians, including an Ericsson consultant who is paid by the city, located the source of the problem at 1 a.m., more than five hours after the system went down.

The original warranty on the system ran out last March and the city chose not to renew it, Fiorey said.

That meant the city picked up the cost of replacing the boards, but HPD officials said that came to only about $2,300. Officials at yesterday's meeting did not say how much the Ericcsson consultant is paid.

Capt. William Chur of the Communications Division said the 18-month-old system "experienced a very severe problem." But he also emphasized that contact with patrol officers was maintained through a contingency plan and that public safety was never jeopardized.

The contingency plan consisted of having dispatchers telephoning district substation commanders who then relayed information to field officers via cellular telephones and remote radios.