Decision to Add College Cops to Radio System Raises Other Questions

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA - The Riverside Community College District police force Tuesday was granted access to Riverside County's public safety communication system at minimal cost under a contract that received extra scrutiny before being approved by the Board of Supervisors.

In a 3-0 vote, with Supervisors John Tavaglione and Chuck Washington absent, the board authorized the Department of Information Technology to program 21 handheld radios belonging to the RCCD Police Department, enabling its officers to receive and transmit on the countywide Public Safety Enterprise Communication system, or PSEC.

The agreement stipulates that RCCD will cover only the expense of programming the units, about $6,700, and not pay monthly access fees for the privilege of using the system, which can run $35 per radio.

The decision to spare RCCD from paying access fees prompted Supervisor Kevin Jeffries to question the rationale behind imposing fees on some entities and not on others.

"It seems unfair that we've allowed some cities to sign up and not pay, at least for the first five years," the supervisor told Chief Information Officer Steve Reneker.

"The media have radios that are not programmed to transmit, and yet they're paying a monthly fee. RCCD is not going to pay," he said. "We need to make a decision one way or another that's fair to everybody. I don't like the way we are treating some (versus) how we're treating others."

Reneker characterized RCCD's situation as "unique," pointing out that the community college district police force, which has responsibility for three campuses, only wanted to link to PSEC to monitor and communicate with the Riverside Police Department, whose officers switched to the countywide radio system over the summer.

"RCC and the city want to maintain the same level of interoperability," Reneker said.

He acknowledged, however, that the college cops will be able to monitor and transmit on all PSEC channels.

Jeffries said he remained unconvinced that the fee schedule was just and vowed to return with a proposal to make it "fair."

PSEC went live in January 2014, replacing the county's analog system, which had been in place for decades but drew complaints from law enforcement officials because of the coverage "gaps" that plagued it.

The system boasts 100 percent connectivity, with no identifiable "blind spots" throughout the 7,300-square-mile county, thanks to 75 cell towers that preserve signals, according to county officials.

In 2014, the board directed the IT department to step up marketing efforts to recruit more users of the system, which cost about $180 million to complete -- nearly $40 million more than originally estimated when the board hired Motorola to build PSEC in early 2007.

Users can tap four separate voice and data channels, including a 4.9 GHz broadband stream, for real-time delivery of information. The interoperability component of the system has been among its chief selling points. Law enforcement and fire agencies from multiple jurisdictions can instantly interface.

Unlike with analog signals, scanner hobbyists cannot tune in sheriff's communications, or those of any other networked entity. PSEC utilizes signal encryption that prevents the general public from hearing what's being transmitted or received, much like a satellite channel that cannot be accessed without a passkey.

– By PAUL J. YOUNG, City News Service / Patch file photo.