Thank you for the recent editorial on the pressing need to address the radio performance issues being experienced by police officers in Victoria and Esquimalt.

As an important point of clarification, the recently commissioned study by the City of Victoria was independent of both CREST and Victoria Police and was conducted in an effort to bring closure to conflicting reports from both parties respectively.

Frankly, as a large funder of the regional emergency radio system, the City of Victoria was hopeful there was something that could be done to address the lack of performance that would not be as costly as a new system. However, we now have two reports that conclude there is nothing that can be done to bring the current system to the standard required for policing in an urban area.

With the independent review of the system now complete, we look forward to working with CREST and the Province to ensure the radio system in Victoria and Esquimalt meets the public safety requirements for policing and provides reliable two-way communication as experienced in the rest of the Capital Region.

This is a matter of public safety for the thousands of people that live and work downtown each day and the men and women officers who work to keep us all safe.