Victoria Police Get Cell Phones

Telecom News Editorials Reports Glossary

8:15 am on December 21, 2005 | Category: Wireless Technology, Mobile Devices

The entire city police force in Victoria, BC has recently been armed with cell phones, as an alternative method of communication to the troublesome CREST radio system.

Both police and firefighters have had complaints against the “Capital Region Emergency Service Telecommunications” system since it was set up two years ago, at a cost of $17.5 million.

The CREST system has reportedly been suffering from very poor reception or no reception at all in some locations, such as high-rises and underground parking garages. Victoria’s Chief of Police claims that the system’s malfunction is needlessly putting his officers at risk.

This is just one more example of the huge range of uses for ordinary mobile phones. If they’d thought of this earlier, they might just have saved a few million dollars of taxpayers’ money.