Dispatchers at the Collier County Sheriff’s Office’s Emergency Communications Center manage emergency 911 calls, dispatch responders and track their locations during Hurricane Ian in September 2022. The county’s P25 800 MHz radio system, which pairs Motorola and L3Harris to cover numerous agencies, failed six times during that hurricane. Photo courtesy Collier County Sheriff’s Office
Cover Story, Main
‘Unreliable’
Countywide public-safety emergency radio system scrutinized
Collier County’s aging public safety radio system doesn’t meet national standards, and suffers from frequent outages, flaws and failures that hinder disaster and emergency response — and public safety.
