Tucked inside President Obama’s 2009 war-spending measure for Iraq and Afghanistan is a $71.6 million request to overhaul the U.S. Capitol Police Department’s radio system.
Capitol Police and area law enforcement officials have complained for years of having an inefficient system that crashes periodically, loses its signal in various parts of the Capitol complex and can be overheard with store-bought radio scanners.
Yet lawmakers have resisted, some balking at the price tag for a radio system inside the Capitol — particularly at a time when members were criticized for a Capitol Visitor Center that more than doubled in cost.
But advocates for the modern radio system say lawmakers may want to weigh those dollars against the price of having antiquated equipment.
“The cost of inaction could be incalculable,” said Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance Gainer, the former chief of the Capitol Police who sits on the overseeing Capitol Police Board.
With the request in Obama’s supplemental spending bill, the department would have the money to buy digitally encrypted radios that would operate seamlessly throughout all of the tunnels and thick-walled buildings on Capitol Hill, with all operational costs covered through 2012. If the supplemental request is approved, the radio system is expected to be fully functional in two years, according to police sources.
“Much has been provided to law enforcement on the Hill, except an ability to communicate,” Gainer said. “The proposed system brings us squarely into the 21st century.”
Another reason for the radio system’s overhaul is that it does not work well with other law enforcement agencies in the area, such as Washington’s Metropolitan Police (MPD), with which Capitol Police work closely on a regular basis.
“I am very pleased that the request for the new [Capitol Police] radio system was included in the supplemental,” said House Sergeant at Arms Bill Livingood, who is a former Secret Service agent and a member of the Capitol Police Board.
“It will provide the [Capitol Police] with better communications both inside and outside the Capitol Complex buildings. It will also ensure the ability of the officers to communicate clearly on life-safety issues and will provide interoperability of the [Capitol Police] with Metropolitan Police and other federal law enforcement agencies.”
Capitol Police began sharing radio systems with MPD in 1992 after Congress granted full law enforcement authority in the area immediately surrounding the Capitol Complex to the Capitol Police.
But in 2003 MPD upgraded their radio system to operate on a digital basis, which made the interagency sharing of radio channels more difficult and at times impossible.
Selected channels on the MPD network are encrypted. But the encrypted ability is lost and interagency communication can be monitored by a scanner if MPD shares that encrypted channel with the Capitol Police because the Capitol Police radio system still uses an analog base.
“I believe that this upgrade is vital to the safety of those who work in and visit the U.S. Capitol, and therefore is of interest to both the District of Columbia and the entire nation,” D.C. police chief Cathy Lanier said at a congressional hearing last year on the radio system.
The Capitol Police Department has been given hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade its security in the years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But funding the system has been an arduous task because members have not been eager to increase the legislative branch budget, which has not fluctuated much over the last three years, to include money for the new radio system.
The Capitol Police Department is also ineligible to apply for federal law enforcement grants, a key source of money that other local police department use for equipment upgrades.
“If the Capitol Police were any other law enforcement agency in America, funds for this would be available from Homeland Security or a DoJ [Department of Justice] grant,” Gainer said.
Congress appropriated $10 million last year, but Capitol Police have not been able to spend the money because the House and Senate Appropriations committees have not approved the department’s plan for implementing the system, saying they wanted more studies to ensure that the $71 million number was the actual amount needed.
Some hesitation erupted around the system’s cost last year when a less expensive 2005 plan to upgrade and work with the existing analog system was confused with the department’s more recent $71 million request for a new digital system.
After seeing the cost of the Capitol Visitor Center double in recent years, members were wary of approving the Capitol Police Department request, fearing that they would only ask for more money in the near future.
But several members, including Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.), ranking member of the overseeing House Administration Committee and the Capitol Security subcommittee, have pushed for Congress to fund the system instead of pinching pennies.
“Mr. Lungren has long advocated that we remain vigilant in our efforts to secure the Capitol Complex,” said Salley Collins, a spokeswoman for the committee’s Republican members. “He believes that replacing the 25-year-old system is a necessary step that will assist the Capitol Police in responding to threats and other critical emergencies.”
Obama’s 2009 war supplemental budget provides for $83.4 billion to pay for military operating costs in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as several State Department and foreign aid programs for the remainder of this fiscal year.
A part of the Capitol Police’s $71.6 million radio system request includes $6.5 million that has been designated “contingency” funds and will be given to the department pending additional approval of the House and the Senate Appropriations committees.