Rate Restructure Approved for Public Safety Radio Network

By City News Service:

RIVERSIDE, CA - The Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved restructuring rates for Riverside County agencies that use the countywide public safety radio network, lowering costs for some and hiking them for others.

In a 4-0 vote without comment, the board authorized county Chief Information Officer Steve Reneker to implement the revised rate scheme for the Public Safety Enterprise Communication system, better known as PSEC.

Under the new formulas, the Riverside County District Attorney's Office and the Fire, Information Technology and Sheriff's departments, along with University Medical Center, will realize savings, while seven other agencies will bear higher costs.

According to Reneker, who was appointed to head IT last year, the revised rate scheme was ironed out following an internal review that determined PSEC was being operated under a "highly complex, tiered rate structure" that cried out for simplification based on actual usage.

Flat rates will be applied in the 2016-17 fiscal year. The sheriff's department will continue to pay the highest sum, coming to roughly $11.22 million. However, that will represent a $107,000 reduction in the agency's current fiscal year PSEC expenses, according to IT documents.

The Riverside University Medical Center will pay the lowest amount -- $51 -- netting a savings of $372. At least one armed deputy is on-duty at the county hospital daily.

The IT department will realize the greatest year-to-year savings from the rate overhaul -- $380,126, officials said.

The cities of Banning, Corona, Murrieta and Riverside are in the process of linking to PSEC.

It 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 coverage, with no identifiable "blind spots" throughout the 7,300-square-mile county, thanks to 75 cell towers that preserve signals.

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 "inter- operability" 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.