The C2000 communication system did falter during the Paaspop festival. The police force management first denied on Friday that the system worked poorly and sometimes not at all, but a spokesperson returns to this after reports from colleagues in Brabant.
Correction: This article has been adjusted because the corps leadership was not fully aware of the problems during Paaspop. After the publication of this article, the corps management was informed that the C2000 system did indeed have problems. The article has therefore been rewritten.
Several officers arrived on Thursday Broadcasting Brabant rang the bell because they said they could “barely communicate” during the festival in Schijndel in Brabant. The tinny and unintelligible sound made the officers feel unsafe. They need the system to be able to respond quickly in case of calamities.
But, a spokesman for the police chief first told NU.nl, the malfunction would not have been due to the C2000 system. It would have been a preventively placed extra mast that became overloaded. According to the spokesman, the C2000 system itself would have been accessible.
The corps leadership comes back to that not hours later. Colleagues from Brabant pointed out to the police that the C2000 system did not work. That happened on Saturday, the second day of the three-day festival.
Between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., the entire system was down for an hour. That is why the extra mast was placed on Sunday. That turned out not to be a good solution either.
‘You can’t say it’s not too bad’
“That is not good”, the spokesperson now says about the C2000 malfunction. “You can’t say that it’s not too bad.”
The police spokesman also told the news agency ANP said that there were no reports of agents having problems communicating with each other or with the control room. That turns out not to be true either.
The spokesperson points out that the agents did have a fallback option: the Push-to-Talk mobile app. This way they can still contact you via their phone.
Police are still worried about a faltering system
Recently there have been several problems with the C2000 system. In some places the system has less good coverage. That is why measures are sometimes taken, such as the extra mast on Paaspop.
Police officers and unions expressed their support Broadcasting Brabant all their concerns about the operation of the system. Although the corps leadership did not endorse those concerns in an earlier response, it does now. “We are concerned,” says the spokesman now. “We find it really urgent that the system is replaced.”
The replacement of the current system has been in the pipeline for years. “In the meantime, maintenance is being carried out and the network is being improved by installing extra masts,” says the police spokesman.
Minister Dilan Yesilgöz-Zegerius (Justice and Security) writes in a Friday Letter to parliament about the concerns. The parties involved “sense the urgency” of the problems surrounding the communication system. C2000 is also “an important precondition for a safe working environment”.
A successor to C2000 is being worked on. The intention is that this new system, under the working title NOOVA, will be taken into use in 2025.
