Outdated Radios Fail Capitol Police

"The price tag is huge," Gainer said.

Congress has appropriated $10 million for the project so far, but it is expected to cost tens of millions more, according to Capitol Police officials.

Capitol Police officials recently told Congress that they have completed the design and cost analysis for a new system. When construction begins, the system will take at least two years to complete, police said.

Gainer noted that in the meantime, Capitol Police officers have found ways to communicate with other agencies. The radio problems have "not ever put the Capitol complex, staff or visitors at risk," he said.

Decades ago, it didn't matter much that local and federal officers were working on a patchwork of communications systems, with different frequencies and equipment. The Capitol Police, for example, used to be a smaller force, more worried about controlling tourists than terrorists.

But with growing threats in recent years, law enforcement agencies collaborate more closely. For example, when the World Bank received a wave of bomb threats in January, D.C. police asked other forces to help them sweep the buildings for explosives. Participating Capitol Police officers found themselves unable to talk to their counterparts at the scene, two officers recalled.

The fractured state of the country's emergency communications burst into view during the Sept. 11 attacks, when New York's firefighters and police were unable to share information. In the Washington area, the issue emerged even earlier, when an Air Florida jet slammed into the Potomac River in 1982, killing 78 people. Rescue officers from the District, nearby suburbs, the Park Police, the military and National Airport responded.

"Nobody could talk to each other," said James Wadsworth, manager of Fairfax County's radio services center.

Today, nearly all local police and firefighters in the Washington area can communicate on digital Motorola radios on the same 800-megahertz band. With the flick of a switch, a Fairfax firefighter can jump onto a Montgomery County fire channel or talk to police. The region also maintains 1,250 extra radios to hand out in emergencies.

The Department of Homeland Security gave the Washington area a top score last year in a nationwide survey of communications "interoperability." That success is partly attributable to federal grants. Since 2003, the federal government has given more than $5 billion to state and local governments to improve emergency communications.

But such grants are not available to federal agencies. When the cash-squeezed Park Police tried to design a radio system a few years ago, they discovered that the price tag was "twice the amount of funds we had available," said Lt. David Mulholland, the force's technology chief.

The Park Police have tried to compensate by partnering with other agencies. They considered joining a project started in 2001 to create a nationwide wireless network for 81,000 agents in the Justice, Homeland Security and Treasury departments.