Trouble with a police lifeline
Recurring radio interference on the Middletown, CT, police department’s main frequency is concerning city and police officials, who are citing potential risks to officer and citizen safety.
The interference, occurring since September, blocks radio communications between officers and the central dispatching center on the primary department-wide frequency, city police and communication officials said. Worried about the problem, city officials requested an emergency meeting with state officials.
The interference, consisting of static, clicks or voices, has possibly been determined to be from the state Department of Environmental Protection’s radio system, Director of Communications James Milardo said. It lasts from a few seconds to a minute, and sometimes occurs several times per day. The problem is not with the city’s radios, and the problem can not be rectified by the city, he said.
“We know what it is, but not where it’s coming from,” said Milardo, who is in charge of the city’s central dispatching center.
“This interference has been occurring for the past several months, and seems to be heaviest when atmospheric ducting is occurring,” according to a Jan. 23 letter signed by Milardo, Police Chief J. Edward Brymer and patrol division Capt. Philip Pessina. The letter was sent to DEP Bureau Chief William Evans Jr. “We believe this (interference) is coming from a vehicular repeater located somewhere in the southeast section of the state.”
“This problem is an officer safety issue for the Middletown Police Department,” the letter said. “This issue must be brought forward and resolved immediately.” In one instance, officers responded to Hunting Hill Avenue where a man was barricaded inside a home, said Officer William Clayton, police union vice president. The department was on “radio silence” to coordinate the officers’ efforts.
“While ascending the stairs, the interference came over the radio,” Clayton said. The interference posed a danger by making the suspect aware of the officers’ position, he said. “It escalated the situation rapidly” into a struggle to control the suspect.
Last month, officers were on an Oak Street call for a reported threatening and the suspect allegedly had a handgun, Clayton said. The officers could not communicate with each other because of the interference, he said. A dispatcher called out over the radio “to get off the frequency” because of the potential danger, the officer added.
On Thursday during a medical call, officers were trying to radio for assistance and an ambulance, Clayton said. Because of the interference, the first call was not heard, he said.
“We’re looking to guarantee the officers are safe and the citizens are safe,” Clayton said. “When radios fail, people can die. We don’t want that to happen.”
“Your radio is your lifeline. Without a radio, people can’t be served,” he said. “It’s an accident waiting to happen.”
Pessina agreed.
“First and foremost, you don’t want something to happen because of the radios,” he said.
“The Middletown Police Union, Middletown Police administration and I feel that not enough is being done to rectify this problem,” Milardo wrote in the letter to DEP.
On Jan. 18, Clayton, on behalf of the union, sent a letter to Brymer expressing concerns the problem had not been resolved.
“The origin or source is not important to the police union or its membership, our only concern is that the interference be stopped,” Clayton wrote. It was understood the problem is outside of Brymer’s direct control, but the problem, needs to be corrected, he said in his letter.
Because a meeting had not been scheduled with state officials, Clayton said he believes the situation “is not being taken seriously.”
“We want an emergency meeting as quick as possible,” Pessina said Friday. “We feel it’s unconscionable. The officers are being put in jeopardy.”
The state DEP has hired a private firm to track the interference. As of Jan. 30 attempts to find the cause “have been unsuccessful,” according to a letter from Marcus Communications to DEP officials.
“The FCC has gotten involved,” DEP spokesman Matt Fritz said Friday. “We’ve been checking it out internally. We’ve been testing our equipment. As far as we can tell, it seems not to be us.”
According to a DEP interoffice memo dated Thursday, “..(the city of Middletown) thinks that DEP equipment is the source of the problem. We have utilized an extensive list of the best resources available to us at this time, but the source of this type of interference is very difficult to find and is probably due to the operation of unauthorized private radio equipment.”
DEP division directors were requested in the memo to have all their personnel check any base or mobile radio equipment, whether state or personally owned, to check that it complies with all FCC rules and regulations. “If not, its operation must be discontinued immediately as a matter of Public Safety,” according to the memo.
(Copyright 2002, The Middletown Press, Middletown, CT. All rights reserved. Republished with permission.)
