It’s a cop’s nightmare.
An officer is sent to a house for a routine call and is suddenly under attack.
Back-up is desperately needed, but the radio doesn’t reach anyone because the cop’s in a dead zone — a section of town where police radios are useless.
There’s no way to call for help.
It’s precisely what union officials say happened on Argonne Terrace Feb. 11 — and it’s not the first time.
It was the 90th time since 2004 police radios didn’t work in the area along Route 34, according to a letter sent Thursday by Seymour police union leaders to police Chief Michael Metzler.
The letter is not an official grievance, but indicates that the union plans to push the concerns “until they are acknowledged and addressed in a prompt and appropriate manner.”
Police spokesman Lt. Paul Satkowski confirmed the chief has received the letter, but would not comment about the many complaints made in it.
“At this time Chief Metzler is reviewing the complaint to ascertain the validity of the allegations being made,” Satkowski said Friday.
Union officials would also not talk about the letter, which was obtained by the Valley Indy.
The Dead Zone
The police radio dead zone stretches along Route 34 in Seymour, and up part of Squantuck Road. It’s an area where communication on portable radios is sporadic, if it exists at all.
The police union says the communication problem puts officers in danger.
“Our patience has expired and a failure to correct these problems could result in more injuries and potential liability against the town of Seymour and the department for the disregard for officer and citizen safety,” the letter, written by union president Richard Sprandel and vice president John D’Antona, reads.
The letter states Seymour administrators have ignored the concerns.
However, the town’s emergency management director says Seymour has been working to fix the problem and is on the verge of installing communication equipment at a new tower in Oxford.
But it’s taken years to get to that point.
The Assault
At about 11 a.m. Friday, Feb. 11, a Seymour police officer was sent to an apartment on Argonne Terrace to check on an emotionally disturbed person, according to union officials.
“As the officer was investigating, she was attacked by the male subject,” union officials wrote. “Her radio did not reach the station as she called for help.”
At some point in the confrontation, the disturbed man called police himself — and a dispatcher could hear the police officer in the background yelling for help.
“Had that not occurred, she could have been more severely injured or killed,” union officials wrote in their letter. A second officer arrived at the scene and was also injured. The man has not been charged with a crime, but police said an arrest is expected soon.
“This is the situation that we have feared for years. We will no longer accept excuses and projected upgrades to our radio system,” the letter reads.
Neither the police department nor the union identified the injured police officers. Both have returned to work.
Satkowski would not comment on whether the radio system worked during the incident. The Valley Indy has sent a Freedom of Information request to the department asking for any radio communications from that morning.
Lingering Danger
The problem, according to the police union letter, is “poor, and in many cases, no radio communications in the Roosevelt Drive area of town.”
Route 34 is known locally as Roosevelt Drive.
The letter claims that since October 2004, there have been “at least 90 documented cases” of failed radio communications in the area.
The dead zone has existed for decades, according to emergency personnel in town.
Thomas Eighmie, the town’s director of emergency management and a former fire chief, said the radio problems are a result of terrain issues and lack of places to put a radio tower.
The town is currently on a hi-band emergency radio system, which uses one communication tower. That system provides radio coverage to 95 percent of town on car-based radios, and 85 percent of the town on portable radios, Eighmie said.
Eighmie said that coverage is an improvement from the town’s former low-band system, which used four towers and had less coverage.
“The Route 34 corridor is identified as a radio nightmare,” Eighmie said. “Every time we’ve changed radio systems, we’ve made it better, not perfect.”
A copy of the union’s letter is posted below. Article continues after the document.
Solution?
In 2008, a town emergency communications committee started paperwork to get access to a cell tower near Oxford High School, which would give portable radio service in almost all the dead zones along Route 34, Eighmie said.
It’s been a slow process.
Over the past two years, the committee has worked to get permission from AT&T, which owns the cell tower, the Federal Communications Commission and various land-use committees in Oxford to use the tower, Eighmie said.
Then, the snow this winter has delayed installation of the communications center at the site, Eighmie said.
“The fact that while they may see it as going slow, the legal and technical processes were moving as expeditiously as possible,” Eighmie said. “We’re not denying it. No one has ever denied it. We’re working as fast as we can. But they wanted it yesterday.”
Once the communication equipment is installed at the tower, it will allow for 100 percent radio coverage for in-car radios, and 99 percent radio coverage for portable radios, Eighmie said.
“If the ground is stable next week, the game plan is to move next week,” Eighmie said.
Reaction
Town officials and members of the police commission said they had not known about the union’s letter — or the incident at Argonne Terrace.
“There are some dead zones down there. That has always been a concern of not only the police department, but all emergency services,” Police Commissioner Lucy McConologue said. “I did not realize that this was something that had put someone in danger.”
She declined to comment specifically on the complaint because she had not read it.
But, McConologue said, “The safety of our officers is on everybody’s mind. I’m sure we’re all concerned about it.”
Stephen Chuchta Jr., another member of the police commission, said he was also unaware of the complaint or the incident on Argonne Terrace.
Other commissioners were unable to be reached for comment Friday afternoon.
Other Complaints
The union’s letter also includes several other complaints from the officers, dealing with lack of training and equipment.
The union claims some members of the department have to wear old and expired bullet-proof vests. The letter doesn’t indicate how many, or how old the vests are.
Satkowski, the department’s spokesman, said information about the vests wasn’t immediately available, but that every member of the department who chooses to wear a bullet-proof vest currently has one.
First Selectman Paul Roy said the town already addressed the issue of bullet-proof vests. It received a grant to purchase 17 new vests last year, he said, and hopes to get another grant this year.
“It’s not like all their vests are older,” Roy said. “They will be replaced on rotation. We are replacing them.”
The union also listed several other complaints:
- The department purchased a GPS system, but hasn’t trained officers in how to use it.
- Officers haven’t received training with a new, high-tech fingerprinting system
- Officers have not received blood-borne pathogen training, Haz-Mat training, first aid and CPR training “in years.”
- There is mold in the men’s locker room and water pools in the north stairwell when it rains
- The police department’s back door doesn’t open all the way
Satkowski said the department is reviewing the allegations.
“The membership of the Seymour Police Union Local 564 gave back pay raises and has made other concession to help our community more than once,” the letter states.
