AUBURN — Too many radio calls between Androscoggin County Sheriff’s deputies and dispatchers are being interrupted by static.
And it’s getting worse, Capt. Raymond Lafrance, who oversees the county’s patrol and communications divisions, said.
On Tuesday, radio experts plan to begin a top-to-bottom examination of the system, from the radio towers to central dispatch to the phone lines that connect them all together.
Meanwhile, deputies have begun filling out forms in recent days meant to track where and when the static-filled calls occur.
“The radio problems have gotten a lot worse,” Lafrance said. “Where we didn’t have problems, we’re having problems. And we don’t know what’s causing it.”
Traditionally, radio communication across the county’s 14 towns and has been less than perfect. Gullies and mountains have interfered with reception. But advances in transmitters did a lot to ease the problem.
The county has three radio towers in all, a main tower atop Goff Hill in Auburn and repeaters in Poland and Leeds. Each cruiser has a 100-watt car radio and every deputy carries a personal, five-watt radio.
Deputies knew where the rare dead spots were, but no longer, he said. The problems have been particularly tough for the hand-held personal radios.
About a month ago, a deputy was making an arrest in Poland when he used his hip radio to call for help, Lafrance said.
Dispatchers never heard the call. Instead, a local firefighter heard the deputy and called the dispatch office.
Each deputy also carries a department-issued cellphone, but they, too, can be unreliable.
“We’re going to sink some money into troubleshooting the whole system,” Lafrance said. The exact cost won’t be known until the analysis is finished, he said.
Meanwhile, money to replace the dispatching consoles and related equipment sits in a county savings account.
Last Wednesday, the Androscoggin County Budget Committee rejected a county commission plan to relocate the dispatch center to a new remodeled area and purchase new equipment. The committee asked for budget forecasts and analyses before passing anything.
“I don’t know if this equipment is this problem,” Lafrance said Monday, “but it’s old and needs to be replaced.”
Dispatcher Bob Levesque said he worries for the deputies in the field.
“It’s definitely concerning because you don’t know what’s going on,” Levesque said.
A deputy complained Sunday that he had lost contact with dispatchers while on the road, he said.
“Our biggest concern, like always, is safety,” Levesque said. “We try cellphones. We try sending other people. We do what we can to try and keep them safe.”
dhartill@sunjournal.com
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