Police complain of digital radio congestion


By Jonathan Nally
Tuesday, 13 March, 2018


Police complain of digital radio congestion

On 14 February, a 19-year-old gunman shot and killed 17 people at a rampage at Parkland School in Broward County, Florida.

Audio released from police voice communication recordings reveal frustration on the part of officers responding to the incident. In particular, complaints about congestion on the air.

"I can't transmit for some reason," said one officer.

"Just so you know, we're having trouble transmitting," said another.

"All cities, all radios be advised to keep your traffic to a minimum. With each transmission, it's causing it to crash, it's overloaded right now, per Motorola," said a third.

Officials say the system was working as intended, and that the users were running into a 'throttling' issue as the radio channel(s) became more and more congested.

The full story is reported by National Public Radio, including comments from Bill Schrier, senior adviser to FirstNet and a recent speaker at Comms Connect Melbourne.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/ChiccoDodiFC

Follow us and share on Twitter and Facebook

Related Articles

Modern station alerting reduces the toll on firefighters

A new generation of fire station alerting systems is improving communications reliability while...

Body cameras enhance safety at Dortmund Hospital

Following a rise in aggression towards healthcare workers, Dortmund Hospital equipped its...

After 600 days of Trump 2.0, how has telecom been impacted?

At 600 days, Donald Trump's second presidency has created a more interventionist environment...


  • All content Copyright © 2026 Westwick-Farrow Pty Ltd