The Background
The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) is the national police force of the state of Zimbabwe in southeast Africa. The force consists of at least 45,000 officers and members as of 1 May 2018, and is headquartered in Harare at the Police General Headquarters. To ensure social stability and public safety, during and after the 2018 presidential election, a decision was made to upgrade the police communications system.
The Challenge
The new government attached great importance to the issue of public safety, but at that time the police radio equipment was deemed to be outdated and unable to cope with the demands and ambitions of the new government. The police emergency communication network needed to be upgraded from the existing analog system to a modern digital radio network.
The Solution
- DMR RD985S Repeaters
- DMR PD685 Hand Portable Radios
- DMR MD785 Mobile Radios
The ZRP was in urgent need of a wide-area coverage emergency communication solution that could be implemented quickly. The decision was made to install a large-scale Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) network provided by Hytera.
Given the urgent timescale and the requirements for follow-up planning, Hytera designed and deployed a conventional DMR solution to provide a first-phase emergency communications solution, as this could be installed more quickly and efficiently than a complicated trunked radio system.
Hytera RD985S DMR repeaters were used to provide the main radio infrastructure for the project. So far, 335 sites have been built across the country, covering major regions in various provinces.
The RD985S repeaters support mixed conventional analog and digital modes, so police who have migrated to digital radios can communicate with colleagues who are still using analog radios. The repeaters will also support DMR Tier III systems should the ZRP system be upgraded to a trunked network. The great advantage of moving from analog to digital is that thanks to TDMA technology twice as many users can use the same channel.
Hytera has also supplied more than 4,500 DMR PD685G hand-portable radios and over 300 MD785i mobile radios. The PD685G is a compact, high-quality device (just 27mm thick and only weighing 310g) with an LCD screen and full keypad. It is rugged and reliable and rated IP67 for dust and water resistance, so it is able to operate in harsh environments.
It also supports GPS for tracking and positioning, as well as supporting emergency mode operation, priority interrupts Lone Worker, and Man Down safety features. The long battery life provides an operating time of approximately 16 hours in digital mode, so it can accommodate use over the length of a long shift.
The MD785i mobile radio is ideal for desktop use or for installation in police vehicles.
Audio processing technology and the in-built speaker means the MD785 offers outstanding audio quality in loud environments and near the boundary of radio coverage. It too also supports mixed analog and digital communications.
The Results
Hytera has helped ZRP to rapidly build out a modern national digital radio network.
The new DMR network has greatly improved the Zimbabwe Republic Police’s ability to respond to various emergencies and to increase the speed of their response time in many public safety incidents since August 2018.
