SOUTH ORANGE — The communication equipment for South Orange’s public safety services must be updated — and, in some instances, completely replaced — according to a presentation given at the July 14 South Orange Board of Trustees meeting.
Don Vaughan of RCC Consultants of Woodbridge told trustees that the South Orange Police Department and South Orange Rescue Squad should be receiving new communications equipment on a different frequency, while the South Orange Fire Department can continue to use its current system. Nevertheless, Vaughan concluded that all of the village’s emergency communication equipment is outdated.
The village hired the telecommunications firm in March to assess the village’s communications needs and issues after receiving some complaints from department heads.
In order to assess the needs and problems with the village’s communication, Vaughan and his coworkers have spent the past month in the village speaking with members of the police and fire departments, rescue squad, department of public works and parking authority, observing current communication abilities, viewing all the equipment, and testing out some alternatives.
Vaughan found that a number of radio antennae throughout the village need extensive grounding, lightning corrections and additions. Also, an antenna used by the rescue squad on Crest Drive needs to be placed.
According to Vaughan’s presentation, while the mobile and portable radios used by South Orange emergency services are functional, they are woefully outdated, with many pieces of equipment being close to 20 years old. The radios used in the village are no longer manufactured and the company that did make them will cease to provide parts and service for them in 2016. Finding spare parts for some of the equipment is already becoming an issue, according the presentation.
“I don’t know about most of you, but I don’t have a 20-year-old car,” Vaughan said. “And this is something that you rely on every day.”
While the radios are functional, the police department and rescue squad have experienced poor sound quality and have had issues receiving and transmitting messages in certain areas in the village. Vaughan pointed that, oddly enough, one of the problem areas is at the police station itself; there is no service inside the building.
The fire department has not reported major issues with its service and believes current communication capabilities are sufficient.
“The equipment is sufficient for their needs right now,” Vaughan said, “and that is just fine.”
In order to rectify these problems, Vaughan and his colleagues are suggesting the village switch the police department and rescue squad over to the New Jersey Interoperability Communications System, as they currently use a combination of a UHF and VHF radio system, which is slowly becoming obsolete.
The NJICS provides multijurisdictional coverage and infrastructure reliability; no infrastructure cost or ongoing maintenance; and offers many state-of-the-art options, such as GPS and encryption. Interoperability would be enhanced as several local public safety services — such as N.J. Transit police, Newark Fire Department, N.J. State Police and Essex County Sheriff’s Office — have already switched or are in the process of switching to NJICS.
“There are plenty of major entities in this area that are going onto that new system,” Vaughan said.
In order to switch the police department and rescue squad to NJICS, new equipment would have to be purchased, but Vaughan recommends that the village maintain its VHF licenses and capabilities at dispatch.
“VHF licenses are very hard to get and very rare at this point,” Vaughan said.
Vaughan has also suggested replacing the rescue squad’s current dispatch in Union County with the Regional Emergency Medical Communications System dispatch, which runs out of University Hospital and is on the NJICS.
While Vaughan and his associates have been testing out two NJICS radios in South Orange for the past month and have gotten stellar results, Vaughan would still like to conduct further tests.
“One of the things that no consultant likes to do is swear that everything’s going to be great without testing and what we’d like to do is conduct some field-strength tests and verify the quality and strength of the N.J. system here in the village,” Vaughan said.
As the fire department has not reported issues with its VHF radio system, RCC Consultants is suggesting keeping the fire department with its current system, but providing it with two NJICS control stations at headquarters for better communication between South Orange departments. Vaughan did point out, however, that the fire department’s communications system will likely need to replaced within five to 10 years.
As for the DPW and parking authority, Vaughan and his associates suggested giving them the most current of the mobile and portable radios in the police department inventory, after the police department switches to NJICS and gains new equipment. The former police units would be reprogrammed to delete non-South Orange frequencies.
The new equipment, licenses and upgrades would cost the village approximately $639,365.38.