Posted on Friday, 23rd April 2010 by Patrick Dorwin
I don’t have time for commentary as I post this, but I wanted to make sure you seen it.
I-Team Exclusive: Opensky Clearing Up
A TODAY’s TMJ4 I-Team exclusive. Seven years and $17 million a high-tech digital radio system called Opensky that still doesn’t work right. Critics say the problems put police and the public in danger.Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn says he’s out of options; the department is in too deep to just pull the plug on Opensky. The I-Team has spent three years reporting on all the problems, and now for a change, some progress.
From Chief Flynn’s first day in office, Opensky has been an open wound.
“The big challenge, unfortunately, is Milwaukee decided to be not cutting-edge, but bleeding-edge,” said Flynn in an exclusive one-on-one interview Thursday afternoon.
Please read the entire interview, especially the answer to the question, “Are your officers and the public safe using this system, until we get all bugs worked out?” I would be interested to know what citizens and officers think about this.
Posted in Home, Open Sky Radios | Comments (14) |
14 Responses to “WTMJ interviews Chief Flynn on OpenSky”
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April 23rd, 2010 at 10:35 am
Other interviews
11/2008 http://bit.ly/doXrGB
5/2009 fast forward to -00:22 http://bit.ly/9PIwfB
Now last night Flynn is shooting for late fall now.
I think if it was up to Flynn, he would of dumped this and maybe even sued. But we all know who is telling him what to say.
April 23rd, 2010 at 12:40 pm
Reporter: “Are your officers and the public safe using this system, until we get all bugs worked out?”
Flynn: “Well, in some ways President Obama and I have something very much in common. He inherited an economy that he wasn’t responsible for, but had to fix. I’ve inherited a radio system that I wasn’t responsible for that I have to make work.”
He didn’t answer the question.
April 23rd, 2010 at 2:15 pm
Milwaukee Police Chief Flynn on Open Sky radio system. (New)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXLlFgsyiFk
April 23rd, 2010 at 5:37 pm
For the past twenty-five months of his term,Flynn continues to blame prior administrations for the problems within MPD and the City.
Flynn claims he has a lot in common with Obama.
Leave it to Flynn to bring up that analogy
April 23rd, 2010 at 10:22 pm
Chief Flynn, if you are going to rip us, you could at least link to us — “the pretend world of the anonymous blogosphere,” indeed.
This is the end of the Chief’s statement from the video posted by mkescan:
Chief, we aren’t trying to start a war with you, nor do I doubt your concern. But we on this blog are also concerned about the safety of our officers — our friends. We aren’t trying to “whip up dissatisfaction,” we are hearing from coppers on the street that don’t want to be on, what you rightly called, “the bleeding edge” of this technology. They are working with what you admit is not working properly.
You say, “I’m not going to accept this system until I’m absolutely comfortable that it is functioning, as the contract said it would function, and functioning in a way that makes officers safe.” That’s what we all want, especially the officers and their families, but you say you won’t accept it, but the officers don’t have that choice, they’re stuck with it… And they don’t appreciate being guinea pigs.
As we have said several times, this radio system isn’t your fault, it was put in place many years before you came to Milwaukee. You have just been stuck with the implementation of a radio system that has promised much more than it has ever delivered anywhere it has been tried.
You can express your frustration at us, the officers that have confided in us, Sergeant Willie Murphy, our radio guru mkescan or anyone else that exposes the truth about OpenSky, but that’s not going to solve this problem.
April 23rd, 2010 at 10:28 pm
Progress my a$$. The technology wasn’t where it should have been when “they signed on the dotted line”. It still isn’t, and yet he still deployed it! The equipment was already obsolete when he decided to deploy it. Him and Obama have a lot in common, they are both politicians and far from leaders. He claims they have made more progress in the last year than the previous six. Maybe, if deployment of the system counts, it still gets worse and more dangerous every day. His answer is giving each officer his own piece of garbage. Wow that’s a great idea! He says he is not going to accept this system until it makes each officer safe, YET HE DEPLOYED IT. FLYNN should go on a ride along with some real street cops and see how it works. Better yet his command staff should have to use it as their only source of communication for a week and see how much they accomplish.
April 23rd, 2010 at 10:58 pm
Someone shoud ask Flynn why he sold the old radio system that worked! Who bought it, for how much, and why couldn’t we just keep it? Maybe he would give another shout out to Obama. Maybe Obama can just print some more money and buy us some radios that work!
April 23rd, 2010 at 11:30 pm
I would really like to hear why officers couldn’t use the old radios until all the problems with OpenSky were fixed, and the new consoles are installed. Nobody would be talking about OpenSky problems right now, if they would of let officers use the old radios until OpenSky was working the way it should.
Also wonder how the new magic radios they want to buy will make officers & civilians more safe, and how that would solve the problems with dead spots.
This is a State of the art radio system, which is newer then the county system, and dispatchers can’t see what squad or officer is talking or hit emergency button? Whats so hard about having officer include radio number when logging in right now? Dispatch will see radio ID on their screen if OpenSky does what it should do,and dispatcher will know that’s officer JS in squad 6225. They shouldn’t need their own radio for that feature to work.
April 24th, 2010 at 10:47 am
The chief ordered the fielding of a radio system which didn’t work, knowing that it didn’t work. The lives of his officers were jeopardized.
This is about money, plain and simple.
Less police officers (fewer hired than those retired/resigned) means less money.
Less detectives means less sworn members receiving detective pay means less money. Apparently, a cop with two years experience is just as good investigating a violent felony as a detective with six.
Less training for police officers means less money (roll of the dice on civil liability).
Make me look bad, Sergeant Murphy? Thirty day suspension means less money.
April 24th, 2010 at 10:50 am
Let’s not forget that the chief is a brilliant man.
Unfortunately, his greatest skill may be that he is a smooth talker and a good politician.
April 24th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
…because nobody cares more about the safety of these cops than I do…. I’m not going to accept this system until I’m absolutely comfortable that it is functioning,… - Flynn
You already have, you lying sack of sh**. You forced it’s implementation and deployment before it was safe to do so and you continue to force it’s shoddy technology on your officers, putting them at dire risk to cover your own sorry hide.
And all the while you continue to lie about the federal regulations.
…who are making significant progress, relatively quickly.
Relative to what? The formation of the solar system?
Put it this way: one of your officers could have had one of his kids complete grade school in the time this still-non-functioning “far superior system” has been in place.
There’s a lot of different agendas out there regarding the police department…
I don’t give a rat’s ass about your mismanaged little fiefdom. I don’t live in your city much less your county. I have no connection whatsoever to any policing agency.
My concern is for the foot soldiers, the guys far far away from the safety of your wood-walled office, who have for the last eight years had to bend over and take it from bureaucratic cover-my-ass dipsticks like you.
Realize: From an outsider’s perspective, you have zero credibility.
And just how is that McBride thing working out for you?
April 24th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
I won’t challenge the fact that Flynn inherited this system, but I can’t believe that he had to implement it without being sure it was going to work properly. As for the Obama analogy he uses, Obama may have inherited a poor economy, but he made it much worse than what he inherited and seems quite content with that.
For purposes of clarity (and Anne, make sure you don’t edit anything I’m writing here before you run this into Chief Flynn), my only agenda is the safety of the troops (as was/is the agenda of Sgt. Willie Murphy and those “anonymous” Department members who have posted comments here) and a policing strategy that actually addresses the needs of the good people in every neighborhood and not some smoke and mirrors strategy that discourages people from calling the cops thereby making it appear that crime is on a downward trend.
April 27th, 2010 at 11:10 am
I realized he used an Alinsky tactic (Rules for Radicals) of attacking those who say something he doesn’t like.
May 14th, 2010 at 7:04 pm
[...] rating isn’t good enough, if it was, officers wouldn’t be coming to, what you called the pretend world of the anonymous blogosphere, and officers like Sergeant Willie Murphy wouldn’t risk their jobs speaking [...]