The Daily News of Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES — The 12-hour blackout of the Police Department’s dispatch center last week renewed calls to overhaul communications for first responders, including a plan to upgrade the Hollywood Hills site that experienced the recent breakdown.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Monday he believes it was personnel or equipment problems at Mount Lee that lead to shutdown last week of the Los Angeles Police Department’s dispatch communication equipment.
“There were certainly personnel issues involved related to this facility,” Villaraigosa said during a news conference at City Hall. “But, it also might have been equipment related. We should have some redundancies built in to make sure we are covered at all times.”
LAPD radio communications went down for half the day April 3, due to a still undiagnosed problem at Mount Lee, which is located above the Hollywood sign and houses equipment used by numerous agencies, including LAPD and the Los Angeles Fire Department.
The blackout comes as city officials are pushing to replace an aging system. One plan would upgrade the Mount Lee communications equipment so it could accommodate a portion of a redundancy backup system, which would help keep the site running if there are multiple power failures. It would also ensure that communications traffic between public safety agencies like the LAPD and LAFD is not interrupted.
The program is being paid for with a grant the city received to upgrade its emergency communication system at its five main sites. In addition to Mount Lee, the other sites are San Vicente Peak, Verdugo Peak, Baldwin Hills and Mount Lukens.
City staffers have presented the Mount Lee project to affected neighborhoods. Some, like the Hollywood Hills Homeowners, have raised concern that the work would be conducted during fire season.
The blackout last week came about when General Services Department workers were sent to Mount Lee for maintenance of a backup generator. However, when the generator went out, it shut down the power system for the LAPD dispatch equipment.
General Manager Tony Royster said the power was restored within minutes. However, it took 12 hours for the LAPD dispatch equipment to be rebooted and start operating.
Adding to the problem was that the Valley Dispatch Center was also down because of electrical issues.
Alice Goff, general manager of the city employee union that represents the dispatchers, said the operators went into the “old school” system of manually calling stations with the dispatch information.
“We are still waiting to hear what happened and what’s being done to fix it,” Goff said. “Our people went into emergency mode and began relaying the calls to stations for dispatching officers.”
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