KAPOLEI, Oahu, Hawaii -- The Honolulu Police Department is in the midst of adding a $900,000 system to back up its troubled digital communications network.

HPD is the first in the country to buy new technology that uses voice rather than Internet technology.

The new system is located at the Kapolei Police Station. Dispatchers say that it gives them island-wide access to police officers on the road, even if the main communications system in downtown is knocked out.

In the past, some dispatchers would operate from the municipal building while others had to work out of the country stations, causing information to be fragmented in different districts around the island.

Kapolei was chosen to house the backup system because it is on a different power grid that the main police station. Police say that another advantage of the new system is that it can be run from any city computer with the system software.

"Not only can they do from here at Kapolei, but they can also have other locations that are presently set up with this software, so they can run their alternate dispatch center from those locations," said Robyn Grier of Catalyst Communications, the company setting up the new system.

HPD's three-year-old digital radio system has been plagued with problems since its inception -- including outages ranging from 45 minutes to six hours, and days of intermittent problems.