PALM BAY, Fla. -- A Central Florida police chief is warning that schools built with thick concrete walls and reinforced steel in ceilings after past hurricanes are blocking emergency communications and could eventually affect students' safety.

Palm Bay police Chief Bill Berger said fortifying many new schools to withstand hurricanes and rough weather may have inadvertently "blacked out" contact between police and emergency radios.

Berger is worried that if a Columbine-type shooting happens, his officers would not be heard on their radios, Local 6 News partner Florida Today reported.

Berger said the problem was illustrated in November, when Palm Bay Officer Sandra Brimmer was called to a fight in a hallway of Bayside High. When she tried to use her police radio to ask for backup officers to come to the school, it wouldn't work.

"It shielded her communications," Berger said, referring to the school's heavy concrete construction.

Brevard County's Director Of District and School Security Andrea Alford said law enforcement radios don't work in some areas of all 85 Brevard County public schools, particularly those built after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. That is when Florida schools were designated as shelters and built to withstand 150 mph winds.

"It's just like citizens' communications are hampered in various locations," Alford said. "It is an issue with all buildings of a certain structural integrity."

School officials said they are taking steps to help fix the problem without hurting an already tight budget, Local 6 reported.

"When I hear people say it's going to be a tight budget, one lawsuit and I'm telling you it will more than magnify the loss," Berger said. "Everybody will then say, 'My God, why did this happen.'"

Any possible fix for the problem is likely to cost more than $150,000 per school, Local 6 reported.

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