WTTG
Reprinted with Permission

WASHINGTON, D.C. - D.C. Police sources tell FOX 5 that radio communications were down citywide in the District Monday night for several hours.

Police officers on the street had no way to receive or respond to calls via radio. The problem was resolved around 1:00 a.m. Tuesday morning.

Sources tell FOX 5 that communication went down sometime around 7:15 p.m. on Monday night. That source also told FOX 5's Will Thomas that officers in the field had no way to respond to calls from dispatch via radio.

Some officers were returning to headquarters, and some were being asked to communicate by cell phone while the outage is investigated and repaired. The D.C. Office of Unified Communication is working on the issue, but there's no word what caused it.

Sources tell FOX 5 that it's possible the issue was related to a generator problem at the McMillan Drive facility. At 10 p.m. Monday, radios were still down, but sources said the in-car computers used by officers were beginning to come back up.

Fire crews' radio equipment was affected as well, according to police sources. D.C. Fire and EMS spokesman Pete Piringer said the system went down but their crews immediately switched over to a backup system, so fire crews are able to respond to 911 calls. Piringer says they are using frequencies from Montgomery and Arlington Counties during the outage, and they are using mobile and portable radios and alternate channels.

Piringer called the transition almost seamless.

Piringer stressed that if a resident calls 911, fire crews will get the call. He said the public should not notice any changes when it comes to D.C. Fire and EMS response.

A police union spokesperson told FOX 5 this may not be the first time the radio system has gone down in the last month.