‘BIGGEST CHALLENGE’

Las Vegas Strip Still Has Radio Dead Zones After Route 91 Shooting

Mandalay Bay’s limited radio coverage was cited as cops’ “biggest challenge” on the night of the attack.

Resort properties along the Las Vegas Strip are still experiencing radio “dead zones,” where first responders cannot communicate using their radios, two years after the Route 91 Harvest festival shooting. Several Las Vegas police officers said they had issues with transmitting and receiving radio updates within Mandalay Bay on the night of the attack, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said Mandalay Bay’s limited radio coverage was the department’s “biggest challenge” on the night of the attack and cited a report that SWAT members in a Mandalay Bay stairwell had trouble contacting their commander. The Review-Journal reports that Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said the Clark County Fire Department had begun an effort to ensure that all strip properties have adequate indoor radio coverage in July, which means first responders can reliably communicate within 95 percent of a building. However, the Review-Journal reports that it is unclear if any properties have achieved adequate radio coverage, or are on track to achieve it by the July 1, 2020, deadline as the two-year anniversary of the attack that left 58 dead and hundreds wounded looms.