Florida Police Plan Radios For Political Convention

Law enforcement agencies in the Tampa (Fla.) region are making plans to manage security and communications for the August convention of the Republican party, hoping to avoid a lack of coordination during the 2008 convention in St. Paul (Minn.) that left officers uninformed about anarchists who pillaged the downtown for two hours without police intervention. The Tampa city council intends to approve spending $6 million for over 1,900 new radios, along with other law enforcement equipment paid by a $50 million federal grant. City officials say the radios will link almost 3,000 law enforcement from their department, the Hillsborough County Sheriff and from agencies brought in from surrounding counties. The officials say the 2008 convention radio network put officers on separate systems, a situation that the Tampa plan will eliminate. Read more about the 2012 convention plans here, and download (pdf) the 2008 post-convention public safety report here.