HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – February will mark four years since the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
The communication system that families were promised would be fixed is still not fully in place.
Max Schachter lost his son Alex that awful day in 2018. He said that out of the tragedy, we learned of the failures and flaws in the county’s communication system.
“Lives are on the line here if there is another tragedy,” he said.
In Parkland, for example, if you dial 911, the call goes to Coral Springs and then to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, wasting crucial time.
The systems are still not communicating, and Coral Springs remains on their own system.
“That’s what we’re trying to fix, and it should have been fixed already, and it’s not,” Schachter said.
By all accounts, it’s an issue of trust and friction among county leaders.
At Tuesday’s MSD Commission meeting, Coral Springs’ police chief explained they’re looking at what he called a hub solution to solve the problem.
“Look, I’m frustrated,” said Coral Springs Police Chief Clyde Parry. “The problem is we don’t know if it’ll work.”
County Administrator Bertha Henry said IT specialists on both sides will come together and make it happen.
“The system is up,” she said. “it is running. It’s been tested.”
Henry touted a new radio system and told the commission overall the comms system is working, with 15 towers in place.
The 16th tower will be built at the West Lake Park site in Hollywood, long opposed by residents of that neighborhood association.
“We lost the battle, and we lost the war,” said Andy Houghton with the West Lake Village Homeowners Association.
Residents said that if the county had picked another site, the tower would have been built already.
“If security was the issue, this tower would have been up a year and half ago,” said Houghton.