2023-08-21 08:17:43
The communication network C2000 of the police is struggling with so many problems that sooner or later there will be victims. A whistleblower warns against this. Police officers on the street cannot rely on the network in crisis situations.
The two-way radios of the police use the C2000 network. You can see that as the police’s own mobile network. Police officers on the street are connected to each other and to the control room via this network. Other emergency services, including the fire brigade and the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, also use the network.
In 2020, a completely new C2000 network was taken into use. The new network was supposed to be a solution to the old age complaints of its predecessor from 2004. But according to whistleblower Sander (fictitious name, real name is known to the editors), the new C2000 is even worse than the old network.
Verantwoording
- Sander is een klokkenluider. Hij sprak met de redactie van NU.nl om de misstanden in het C2000-netwerk aan de kaak stellen.
- De persoonsgegevens van Sander zijn bij de redactie van NU.nl bekend en geverifieerd.
- Sander wil niet met zijn echte naam in de media verschijnen, omdat dat grote gevolgen voor zijn carrière kan hebben.
- Sander is vanuit zijn functie bekend met zowel de operationele als de technische kant van het C2000-netwerk.
- Met de informatie van Sander heeft NU.nl ruim een half jaar onderzoek gedaan om tot dit artikel te komen.
Complaints have been pouring in since the network was commissioned. All notifications will be listed. But according to Sander, that laundry list is growing faster than the network team can keep up. According to the whistleblower, the problems are so great that it is no longer realistic to think that they can still be solved.
Agent Peter de Leeuw confirms the problems. As a member of the ACP police union, he spoke in a personal capacity with the editors of NU.nl and also expressed his concerns about the C2000 network. “The only thing I want to achieve with this is that the problems are solved. This is about the safety of citizens, colleagues and myself.”
‘We crawled through the eye of the needle’
Police officers complain about, among other things, the inadequate coverage of the network, unintelligible conversations and communication that does not reach the control room. In the case of major incidents, the network quickly becomes clogged, making communication even more difficult or even impossible. That is dangerous, because agents cannot call for the help they need.
It’s not a question of if something will go wrong, but when.
A number of incidents in which the C2000 network has failed have made it into the media. This applies, for example, to the beach riots in Hoek van Holland and a major chase that ended in the Brabant village of Rijsbergen.
“But there are more incidents where we have crawled through the eye of the needle,” sketches whistleblower Sander. “In May, for example, lightning struck an important point in the C2000 network.”
According to Sander, for example, due to that lightning strike, the royal family’s security could no longer communicate. The Special Support Team that deals with the transport of prisoners at risk of flight also lost contact with the control room. “If something had happened to the royal family or a prisoner had escaped, the whole country would have been in turmoil.”
If things go wrong, the country is too small
“It is not a question of whether things will go wrong, but when,” warns officer De Leeuw. He hopes that policymakers will intervene before the problems start claiming lives.
Police union ACP does not have a good word for the C2000 network. The union filed a complaint with the Dutch Labor Inspectorate last year. It has launched an investigation.
At the end of July, the conclusions of that investigation were shared with the police force management and the ACP trade union, the inspectorate confirms. All parties involved now have the opportunity to share their views. After that, the opinion of the Dutch Labor Inspectorate will become final and public.
The so-called notice of requirements is in the hands of the editors of NU.nl. In the document, the labor inspectorate describes the problems in the C2000 network. In addition, conclusions are drawn about the risks for officers on the street. The Inspectorate does not judge the cause of these problems.
Start of problems already in the tender
“The impetus for all the problems already lies with the tender in 2016,” says Michiel Steltman of the Netherlands Digital Infrastructure Foundation. “The tender has been approached as the purchase of a product, while it is actually a service: a communication service.”
Many ICT problems that the government has to deal with can be traced back to an incorrect tender.
According to Steltman, if you are going to buy a car, you can determine in advance what that vehicle should be able to do. But with a service, according to the expert, you can never estimate what you will need in five or ten years.
For example, the tender stated that the C2000 network had to cover 97 percent of the Netherlands. There did not need to be cover in buildings. Now the police are faced with the problem that there is no coverage in, for example, parking garages or large factory halls.
“That is why the government should have put out a communication service with a best efforts obligation for the supplier,” explains Steltman. “The supplier then ensures that the network is adapted to the needs of the user, for example by still achieving indoor coverage.”
Steltman sees a pattern in all government tenders. “Many ICT problems that the government has to deal with can be traced back to an incorrect tender.”
Not the best network supplier emerged
In addition, the tender did not select the best network supplier, says whistleblower Sander. “The supplier pretended to be a party with a lot of experience, but that is not true.”
The result, according to the whistleblower, is a poor network with many problems. “The supplier has still not fulfilled all the agreements from the tender.”
“For example, a new control room system should have been taken into use in 2020,” Sander continues. “That system was only delivered this year and commissioning has been reversed in many places because it causes too many problems.”
As owner of the network, the Ministry of Justice and Security (J&V) says that “the environment in which the new network operates has changed since the tender”. According to the ministry, solar panels and new buildings in particular lead to reduced coverage and connection problems.
Advice ignored
The new C2000 network was taken into use on the night of 27 to 28 January 2020. The old network was still in the air at the time, so that the transition could be canceled in the event of problems.
“During the transition to the new C2000 network, we already saw a lot of problems,” says Sander. The team working on the migration therefore advised to call off the transition. According to Sander, that advice has been ignored.
“The champagne had probably already been opened in The Hague, so the order came from above to continue,” says Sander. “The old network was then turned off. There was no way back.”
That reading is denied by the Ministry of J&V. “During the migration in January 2020, there was no situation that led to the migration being cancelled,” the ministry told NU.nl. “And no advice to perform a so-called rollback has been issued.”
New tender as a solution
To solve the problems with the C2000 network, the ministry is once again working on a tender. The intention is for the police to use a so-called push-to-talk service via one of the existing mobile networks.
“This walkie-talkie service via the mobile network must become the primary means of communication for the police,” says Sander. “The C2000 network then becomes a backup, but the network was never intended to be that way.” According to the whistleblower, it is therefore an outright waste of millions of euros in taxpayers’ money.
“It is to be hoped that the Ministry of Justice and Security will now do the tender differently,” concludes Steltman. “Otherwise we will soon have two communication networks with problems and defects.”
100 percent coverage is not feasible, according to the police
The police force command refers in its response to a publication on the police website. In it, the organization writes “that the corps is trying in every possible way to improve the coverage of communication system C2000”.
“But we also have to be honest,” says member of the corps leadership Henk Geveke. “A range of 100 percent is not feasible. But that does not absolve us from the obligation to do everything possible in the interest of safety to improve the range where possible.”
The Ministry of J&V also endorses that “a good reach of the system for citizens and aid workers is necessary”. The file therefore has a high priority for the Minister of J&V, a spokesman said.
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