Report still pending on dead lines
By Lynn Doan
Hartford Courant (Connecticut)
Copyright 2007 The Hartford Courant Company
All Rights Reserved
WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. — The town’s police and volunteer fire departments are awaiting the results of a recent inspection of a cell tower following the loss of service to their radio systems.
New England Communications, which is contracted by the police and volunteer fire departments to provide radio service, sent workers to inspect the cell tower following a series of complaints about glitches in the systems, Police Capt. Chester DeGray said.
In March, Sgt. Robert Koistinen filed a complaint with the department regarding ongoing problems with its radio system that, he said, have “jeopardized the safety of residents"and officers.
“We asked the radio company to check the whole system for any issues we might have,"DeGray said. “We’re going to do everything we can to make sure it’s up and running correctly."The police department’s radio system went down in March because of an electrical problem, and placing the radios on a backup system caused some confusion. A few weeks later, Koistinen said, the radios went down for minutes at a time.
Fire Chief Gary Ruggiero said an electrical glitch also caused his department’s radio system to shut down for minutes in March.
DeGray said the problems prompted the departments to ask that New England Communications inspect the cell tower, located behind the town’s public safety complex. The inspection was conducted less than two weeks ago and the fire and police departments are waiting to hear if workers found any equipment in disrepair.
Koistinen said in his March complaint that the radio glitches caused a “serious safety issue"during a robbery because officers couldn’t use the radios to inform one another of their whereabouts.
“As shift commander, I could not communicate my orders to officers responding to the scene,"he said. “Officers were communicating with their cellphones.”