Police radio system back in the news
I’ve been doing this blog long enough that I remember the absolute shitshow when the SPVM replaced its old but reliable radio communication hardware in 2011 with a vastly expensive system called SERAM that often failed to work. Now that system is reaching its end of life and has to be replaced.
What’s interesting here is this: “une équipe de la Ville de Montréal, baptisée SERAM 2.0, a contacté dans la plus grande discrétion les villes voisines de la métropole pour connaître le système de radiocommunications qu’elles utilisent.” It’s the “plus grande discrétion” that’s notable. It’s the most natural thing in the world that research for a big expensive civic purchase would include finding out what comparable cities use and how well it works for them. It isn’t something to be ashamed of – but there’s that Quebec thing of preferring something home-cooked, even if it turns out to be much more expensive, untested, and prone to bugs.
Tim S. 12:27 on 2023-09-09 Permalink
Every time I’ve interacted with the SPVM they just call each other on their phones.
Ian 13:43 on 2023-09-10 Permalink
This is mostly true but they use cell signal blockers during protests.
Even when a big event lets out the network can get overloaded so in crowd control situations they need another means to communicate.
As I recall the rationale for ditching radio was that it’s not at all secure, anyone could listen in.