Computer glitch The Honolulu Police Department was forced to turn off its new digital radios for nearly four hours Wednesday night and rely on its old analog system because of a problem with part of the new digital communication system, said Maj. Karl Godsey, acting assistant chief of HPD's Support Services Bureau.
trips HPD systems
Data problems force communications
back to analog modeBy Nelson Daranciang
ndaranciang@starbulletin.comThere have been no reports that the temporary switch compromised officers' or the public's safety, said Godsey, whose promotion to assistant chief takes effect on Sunday. The digital radio system went on line April 9.
Police believe data transmissions between officers with mobile computers and dispatchers were clogging the system. The mobile computers are part of a pilot program that started April 11.
"(Wednesday) we began to see evidence of problems with the accumulation of data over the voice channel, which caused interference with the radio system," Godsey said.
Officers could communicate with each other but not with dispatchers, he said, so at 7 p.m. the department turned off its digital radios and went to a backup communication system that uses voice transmissions over the Internet.
"And about a half an hour later, we switched back to the analog system, staying off digital, until we rebooted the entire system and went back online at almost 11 o'clock (Wednesday) night on digital," Godsey said.
Police also halted use of the mobile computers Wednesday night. The 11 computers assigned to Patrol District 7 were scheduled to go back online this morning allowing officers to get information on warrants, driver's licenses and vehicle registrations.
However, officers will not be allowed to use the computers to communicate with dispatchers until police figure out how to prevent data from accumulating and clogging the voice communication system.