New police radio system to be put before town meeting voters

 

Upgraded radio system top priority for board

By Jonathan Cook

Turley Publications Reporter

WARREN – There was no static at all at Tuesday night’s Board of Selectmen’s meeting.

The police union had filed a grievance due to a radio system that covers only 17 percent of the town and even where reception can be had one moment, the next it is gone. As a result, the selectmen agreed to put a new system to the voters at the fall town meeting with a recommendation that stabilization money be spent to get it done if necessary.

Police Chief Bruce Spiewakowski said, “The system we have in antiquated, outdated and failing. We’ve known this has been a problem for some time.” He said upgrades were approved by capital planning, but the process stalled during talks of regionalization. He added that, in the mean time, the radio system has continued to deteriorate.

The chief has contacted a company and “they have been fantastic,” he said. They have done a site study. The current system has three repeaters. One is on Southbridge Road cell phone tower. The second is in West Warren and the third is in a private residence on Reed Street. He explained that industry standards today are to have 100 watt repeaters, but two of the three repeaters in town are only 25 watts. Of those, one puts out eight watts, and the other one is broken. There is a 50 watt repeater in a private barn on Reed Street, but the company representative told Spiewakowski it was the wrong spot for reaching West Warren.

The chief also told the board about his first hand experience with the radio system when he responded to a heart attack call on River Street. “I responded to that call because I was right around the corner. I could not raise dispatch on my portable radio using the West Warren frequency.”

Spiewakowski came to the meeting with a budget worksheet of $64,000 to install new repeaters. He said the radios could be reprogrammed to work with the repeaters. He emphasized that it was not a quote. Quotes would need to be sought before going to Town Meeting.

The radio company recommended the installation of three repeaters with one on the cell phone tower on Coy Hill Road. With that site, the town will have 90 percent coverage. “I can’t honestly say (the whole system) will provide 100 percent,” Spiewakowsi said. However, he said the new system would automatically find the nearest repeater, whereas the current system has to locate reception manually, which can slow an officer down in an emergency situation.

Selectman Bob Souza asked Officer Mark Chase, union president, if this new system would address the union grievance.

“As long as the radios work, we don’t have a problem,” said Chase. “Right now we’re dealing with 15 percent coverage, so if we get up into 90 percent, we’d be very happy with that.”