Malfunction Causes Delay In Roll-Out Of Emergency Radios In Montco
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Roll-out of new emergency radios to first responders in Montgomery County is on hold due to a malfunction with some of the models.
Montgomery County started distributing the radios in August, putting out about 300 and county deputy director of public safety John Corcoran says it didn't take long to realize there was a problem.
"Roughly 10-percent of these radios were found to just arbitrarily shutting themselves off without giving the field user any alert or notification that they were doing so."
Montgomery County deputy solicitor Josh Stein says when they contacted Motorola, they learned there was a similar issue with radios across the country.
"We are in the process of working with Motorola to send those radios back and to have those repaired."
Stein says it will delay the county-wide roll out of new radios by about five months. But both say there are plans to have the radios repaired and replaced as quickly as possible.