Collier County’s aging public safety radio system doesn’t meet national standards, and suffers from frequent outages, flaws and failures that hinder disaster and emergency response — and public safety. That’s the dire warning Nathan Hinkle, county telecommunications manager, provided the Board of County Commissioners on June 10, when a county consultant presented a report on deficiencies, gaps and a strategy to upgrade the P25 800 MHz radio system to meet present and future needs of first responders and general county government users. After Hurricane Irma in 2017, the system failed for more than 12 hours, and for six hours in 2022 after Hurricane Ian. Firefighters battling house and brush fires in Golden Gate City often report dropped communications. And there were “swatting incidents,” hoax emergency calls triggered to garner SWAT team response and chaos. For example, in December 2023, after a report that a student shot multiple students at Naples High School, so many Naples Police officers, Collier County Sheriff’s SWAT team members and emergency personnel responded that radios were overloaded and couldn’t communicate. In 2019, a swatting call reporting an active shooter at David Lawrence Centers caused so many agencies to respond — more than 105 deputies and first responders from fire and EMS — that the system overloaded and crashed. In 35 pages of incidents provided to the consultant, firefighters, emergency responders, police officers and deputies reported failures, sometimes monthly, that last hours — when only seconds are deemed acceptable. “I’ve faced immense challenges keeping our current radio system operational,” Hinkle said of the 800 MHz system designed in 1994 that’s undergone numerous upgrades and additional radio sites. “The system suffers from frequent outages and significant design flaws, including multiple single points of failure, and a lack of timely alarm notification. “In my 29-year career as a telecommunications professional, I’ve never encountered a system with such persistent fundamental issues. These problems not only compromise system reliability, but directly impact our public safety and emergency response,” he added. A memo to commissioners says costs to upgrade are estimated at $20 million to $60 million, depending on the option the county chooses, a sum not included in the 2026 budget. Collier’s system uses equipment manufactured by the nation’s top communications giants, Motorola Solutions and Harris Corp., which often battle for government contracts. L3 Technologies and Harris Corp. merged in 2019, creating L3Harris. The county’s public safety agencies use Motorola technology, while Collier County and Collier County Public Schools use L3Harris. The district invested $15 million in upgrades to its system, which relies on the county’s L3Harris system, and is still studying how to improve its system. There have been “many points of failure” with the county’s and school district’s L3Harris system, and the goal is to...