WUSA9
WASHINGTON — Mayor Muriel Bowser ordered the D.C. fire department to stop encrypting its emergency radios. The order comes in the wake of the deadly smoke incident aboard a Metro train on the Yellow line last month, but Bowser says that the order was not in reaction to the incident.
Metro officials and firefighters had stated previously that there were communication problems. According to the firefighters union, the encryption system played a part in those issues. However, Bowser’s administration says that the radio system was under review before her inauguration weeks before the incident at Metro. But the radios came under intense scrutiny when firefighters at the scene of the incident inside the Metro station couldn’t communicate with crews above the ground.
The radio communications are now open to the public, according to the mayor’s spokesperson.
Full story: DC fire dept. ordered to stop encrypting radios