Copyright 2006 The Hartford Courant Company
By LORETTA WALDMAN
Hartford Courant (Connecticut)
BRISTOL, Conn. — Outraged by statistics showing the fire department responded to 236 vehicle lock-out calls in a recent seven-month period, Republican City Councilman Mike Rimcoski is calling on the city to charge for the service and turn it over to the police department.
Calling his concerns “strictly economic,” Rimcoski urged Mayor William Stortz and members of the city council Tuesday to amend the city’s policy of sending a firetruck and three firefighters to each call.
“I don’t think we should be AAA or the locksmith,” he said.
Rimcoski did not indicate how much the city was spending by having the fire department respond to lock-outs, but did say it was more than the cost of sending a police cruiser and one officer. Charging for the service would help recover some of the cost, he said.
Police Chief John DiVenere was cool to the idea, which he feared would tie up officers needed for more dire emergencies. Police provided the service many years ago, he said, but got out of the business due to complaints from locksmiths about lost business and from car owners about occasional damage to vehicles.
“With the volume of emergency calls we get today, I’d be reluctant to go to the police board and ask that we start responding,” DiVenere said. “The fire department is better suited.”
Councilwoman Ellen Zoppo-Sassu suggested looking at other alternatives.
“Maybe we could have representatives of the police and fire board talk about it,” she said. “The fire department does have an emergency support vehicle they could use to respond. Or we could just get out of the business altogether.”
Councilman Frank Nicastro asked Rimcoski to postpone action until the next council meeting to allow police and fire officials to discuss the matter further.
There are a lot of factors to look at, Stortz added.
“If making the decision were that easy it would have been dealt with a long time ago,” Stortz said.
Rimcoski agreed to the tabling of his motion, but said something has to give.
“We’ve got to do something,” he said. “We simply can’t afford 236 trips with three firefighters.”