Seymour Police (Jnion Local 5 64

I I Franklin Street
Seymour, Connecticut 064 8 3

To: Chief Metzler

From: Richard Sprandel, Union President

Date: February24,2OLL

Subject: Citizen and Officer Safety

The purpose of this correspondence is to olert you to concerns the membership of the
Seymour Police Union Locol 564 hove with regord to citizen ond officer sofety. These concerns
hove been roised in the post, but the issues hove not yet been resolved. We ore requesting
immediote resolution to the following issues: l) Poor or no rodio communicotion;2) Heolth
hozords within the deportment itself; 3) Problems in dispotch center which ploce officers ond
prisoners ot rish of injury; 4)Loch of required troining for officers.

The Seymour Police Union Locsl 564 hereby request immediqte qction be tohen to correct
these problems so thqt officers ond the citizens of the Town of Seymour thot they ore sworn to
protect qre no longer of grove rish of injury or deoth due to the inodequote equipment,
troining ond worhing conditions.

time these motters hove been brought to your ottention. Our concerns
This is not the first
hove been ignored which hod resulted in officers being unnecesscrrily injured ond exposed to
heolth hozqrds. Our potience hos expired qnd o foilure to correct these problems could result
in more injuries ond potentiol liobility ogoinst the Town of Seymour ond the Deportment for
the disregord for officer ond citizen sofety. We ore seehing swift oction to oddress our concerns
qnd restore confidence in our membership thqt police deportment odministrqtors ond the
Town of Seymour will do everything in their power to heep our members ond the members of
this community os sofe qs possible.

Our members hqve documented poor, qnd in mqny coses, no rqdio communicotions in the
Roosevelt Drive oreo of town. The problem hos not been corrected. Since October ol2oo4,
there hqve been qt leost 90 documented cqses. For yeors we hove been qssured thot
improvements ore being worhed on ond would be completed immediotely. lnsteod our
requests hqve been ignored, putting officers qnd citizens of rish of serious injury, illness, or
deoth.
 On Fridoy, Februory 11,2C11qn officer wos sent to on oportment on Argonne Terrqce to chech
on on emotionolly disturbed person. As the officer wos investigqting this situotion, she wos
qttoched by the mole subject. Her rodio did not reoch the stotion qs she cqlled for help.
Fortunstely, the violent subject cqlled the Seymour Police himself ond the officer wos oble to
yellfor help. Hod thot not occurred, she could hove been more severely injured or hilled. The
second officer who responded wos olso injured by the subject. This is the situstion thot we
hove feored for yeors. We will no longer occept excuses ond projected dotes for upgrodes to
our rodio system.

Our officers hove not been provided with required troining. This ploces our members st
unreqsonsble rish on o doily bosis. Mqnogement hqs fsiled to provide required blood-borne
pothogen trqining, Hqz-Mot crwqreness trqining, First Aid, or CPR troining in yeors. Our
members, however, ore regulorly exposed to situstions where this trqining is criticol.

On lonuory 1,2011, four officers were exposed to blood on their shin qnd uniforms during on
incident. On Februory 1o,2011 q Sergeqnt wos "priched" with o hypodermic needle while
seorching o drug oddict's belongings. With incidents lihe these hoppening to our members,
<rnd o less thqn timely rerponse from police odministrotion to trqin snd equip our members to
hondle doily police octivities, our membership believes thqt their heqlth ond sofety ond the
heolth ond sofety of the public is being neglected.

There qre other issues thot qlso couse doily hordships, deloys, qnd hinder our members
performing our duties to the best of our: obilities. Mony of these issues hove slso been brought
to the qttention of monogement ond town officiols for months ond in some cqses yeqrs, Some
issues qt the police focility thot ore not being corrected include mold in the men's locher room,
qs well qs, woter in lochers olong the outside wqll. There is often o foul odor in the men's
locher room, the lochers were never properly instqlled ofter the first ottempt to fix the woter
problem ond the bqse boord wos never put boch on. There is o generol loch of cleonliness ot
police heodquorters; toilets qnd floors ore filthy qnd wqter pools in the north stqirwell
whenever it rqins. There qre mony open wires in the dispotch oreo, the lower ponels ore
constontly fqlling off qnd the video monitors for the cell bloch oreq qre not positioned properly
so prisoners cqn be properly monitored. A bottery boch-up wos put on the floor in front of the
window opening which officers ore constqntly wolhing into. When it wqs initiolly put there we
were told it is temporory, it will be gone in q weeh or two. A yeor qnd o holf loter, it's still
there qnd being hiched when officers step up to the window to deql with the public. The reor
door to the police deportment needs o door closure qdjustment becquse it doesn't open to 90
degrees. The door in dispotch olso needs q closure odjustment becouse it hos too much
resistonce on it when opening the door. There ore multiple computer system problems which
often cquse deloys in boohing ond report writing, os well os, officers losing 2 or 3 poge reports
ond hoving to stort over ogoin. Eoch time we do o mojor computer upgrqde we seem to go
bochwqrds.
Another concern is the lqch of troining ond upheep of new equipment. Our members hqve
never hod formol trqining in the GP5 system, the in house comero systems or the porh comero
systems locoted in dispotch. These systems ore often not running or only worh intermittently.
The lqch of troining qppeqrs to be the Town trying to sove money with the hope this
equipment just worhs. This ploces our members ond citizens in grove dqnger.

Our new AFlS system in boohing is in service with some members getting informqltroining
from new officers who tronsferred from other deportments thqt olreody used the system,
rother thon implementing on officiol deportmentol troining progrom for the system. This
system is olso "down" frequently, requiring members to use the old rolled inh system, which is
more time consuming qnd lqchs the other benefits of the AFls system.

The Town hos olso foiled to include in its budget life soving bollistic vests. This results in our
members hoving to weqr old or expired bqllistic vests. These qre items thot could prevent on
"in the line of duty deoth" in our town. Our members feel strongly thot vests should hove
been purchqsed ond the rqdio system completed before the GPS system wos instolled. The
initiql figures for the GPS system were spproximotely $3O,OOO.OO. One police commissioner
even stoted of o police commission meeting thot $3O,Ooo.Oo is q smoll price to poy to prevent
him from hoving to tell on officers fomily their loved one wos hilled. The union membership
strongly believes thst bollistic vests sove lives, NOT GpS.

The membership of the Seymour Police Union Locol so+ gove boch poy roises ond hqs
mqde other concessions to help our community more thqn once. We qre going to voice our
concerns untilthey qre ochnowledged qnd oddressed in o prompt ond oppropriote mqnner.
Locol56+ will no longer stond by in silence while our members worh z4l7 to protect this
community without the required support, troining, ond equipment needed to perform our
duties.

D'Antonq

President Locql564 Vice President Locql 564