Councilors Ed Flynn and Erin Murphy reported that the department's primary radio channel failed for 30 minutes during a night that included four shootings and a stabbing in Dorchester. Boston Police communications chief Mariellen Burns stated that the radio system was not offline and that only one channel was impacted, and that officers resumed using the channel once it was fixed. Burns described an existing protocol to notify officers to switch channels immediately if a channel has an issue. Superintendent-in-Chief Phillip Owens characterized the lapse as very short, saying communications were compromised for only seconds. Councilors requested a detailed public investigation into the mishap and its effects.
radio system itself was not offline, one channel was impacted.
We have an existing protocol/operational backup that if one channel has an issue officers are notified to switch to another channel right away, and that is what occurred in this case,
That lapse that you're referring to was very, very short.
I wasn't there that night, but I was told that, per our protocol, we immediately went over to another channel,
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