Police Radio

The city's trouble-plagued police radio system malfunctioned briefly yesterday as officers on patrol in North Philadelphia and Northeast Philadelphia heard only static on their radios for about three minutes. Police said they were trying to pinpoint the cause of the problem, which developed at 2:23 p.m. Chief Inspector Michael Feeney said officers in squad cars heard only static from dispatchers at Police Headquarters. Feeney said officers were able to communicate with other patrol cars, but not with headquarters.

Two burglary suspects escaped when police officers investigating a break-in at a Nether Providence school were unable to communicate via radio from opposite sides of the building. A police officer's radio call for help with a fight in Darby Borough was blocked out by a broadcast from a sheriff in Montana. A local police chief recalled the hot pursuit of two armed-robbery suspects through the county's back roads not knowing whether his radio messages were being picked up by the county radio system.

The glitch in the police radio system that left a large number of the city's 600 patrol officers on duty Tuesday night without two-way communications for roughly a half-hour remained elusive yesterday as technicians searched to isolate the cause. "Our main concern is that we resolve the issue and [preserve] the safety of the officers and the public they protect," said Steve Gorecki, a spokesman for Motorola, the company that installed the city's new $52 million emergency-services digital communication system that went online about 18 months ago. Two-way communications were back to normal yesterday as the probe was conducted.

A series of human errors caused a 40-minute failure in the city's police radio system July 22, according to a report submitted yesterday to City Council by the Nutter administration. The report also said the problem-plagued Motorola system would cost $40 million to upgrade - almost as much as it cost to install in 2002. The Motorola system has been hobbled by dozens of malfunctions, from momentary glitches to systemwide crashes of almost an hour. The system failure last summer enraged Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey, who called the problem "unacceptable.

The Police Department's field communications network went off the air for eight minutes yesterday morning when a master fuse blew and abruptly ended all contact between patrol officers and dispatchers at police headquarters. "To the best of my knowledge, we have never had a total communications failure like that," said Deputy Commissioner Thomas J. Nestel, a 27-year veteran who oversees the radio network. Nestel supervised repairs yesterday. Police officials said the master fuse blew out about 9 a.m. in the radio room of the Police Administration Building.

Two Philadelphia police radio dispatchers face a combined 120 years in federal prison and more than $1 million in fines if convicted on charges of using police computer equipment to obtain and distribute personal information about cars and homes to a man they believed was robbing the victims. "These defendants deliberately undermined the work of the very officers they were supposed to be supporting," U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan said in a statement yesterday. Charged were Patricia Bradley, 35, of the 1300 block of Lippincott Street, and Tamara Mitchell, 38, of the 600 block of Chew Street.

Police said yesterday that four burglary suspects captured Wednesday night in Winslow Township used police radios and shot out outdoor lights with BB guns while eluding them for almost five months. The four were identified as Christopher Pate, 18, of Pomona; his brother, Brian Pate, 20, and Tracey Buri, 20, both of Audubon, and Stephen Goff, 19, of Absecon. They were charged initially with two counts of burglary, but police said that when the investigation is complete, they might be charged with 40 burglaries in Winslow, Cherry Hill, Monroe and Evesham.

The city's new and troublesome $54 million public-safety radio system acted up again yesterday morning, transmitting only sporadic and clipped communications between Police Headquarters and emergency vehicles in parts of South Philadelphia and Center City. Only the police side of the 800 MHz system was affected. The Fire Department and other emergency services that use the network were problem-free. The situation apparently began shortly before 6 a.m., when technicians from Motorola, which installed the system, were automatically alerted by an alarm that problems were occurring on the police system, Deputy Police Commissioner Charles Brennan said.

A 14-year-old West Philadelphia boy being mentored by Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson has been banned from Police Headquarters after he took a commander's walkie-talkie from the building. The youth, whose name was not released because of his age, is believed to have used the radio to illegally transmit on law-enforcement channels, canceling some 911 calls for police service while using the call numbers of a night-command captain. In at least one other instance, he radioed asking for a "license check," meaning he wanted the name of a registered owner of a vehicle, a common practice by officers.

The city's relatively new $52 million police radio system went off the air for 20 to 40 minutes Tuesday night, leaving a night shift of about 600 patrol officers without its electronic lifeline to headquarters, FOP officials charged yesterday. The failure came as waves of officers from all over the city were responding to repeated calls for help from police on Wade Street in Germantown, where an officer was trying to break up a fight on the highway. The call for assistance went out three times.

Houston chief testifies to attack HOUSTON - Houston's police chief testified Tuesday that he believes an ex-officer accused of taking part in the videotaped beating of a 15-year-old burglary suspect kicked and stomped on the teen. Police Chief Charles McClelland Jr. said the actions of fired officer Andrew Blomberg were "contrary to department policy, training and state law. " Blomberg, 29, is the first of the four fired police officers to stand trial in the arrest that was caught on security camera video.

To paraphrase President Obama, if I had a son who had been flat on the ground in a vicious fight, the back of his head would look like that of accused murderer George Zimmerman. Thanks to a photograph broadcast by ABC News showing Zimmerman's bloody head wounds, those trying to use Trayvon Martin's death to challenge "stand your ground" self-defense laws had better start exploiting some other tragedy. For the picture demonstrates that Zimmerman was unable to retreat, since he was pinned to the ground taking a beating when he shot Martin.

A wild 15-minute police car chase of a suspect that criss-crossed the city Friday night ended with an accident that killed a man and injured a woman and a 4-year-old boy. At 9:54 p.m., a 25th District officer reported that he was in pursuit of a man driving a silver 2001 Volkwagon because the man had pointed a gun at the officer. Depending on the crime, police car chases are often terminated quickly by supervisors because of the risk of accidents and bystanders getting hurt.

Investigators charged a man with murder Saturday after he allegedly led police on a wild and deadly car chase through the city Friday that left one innocent bystander dead and two others, including a 4-year-old boy, critically injured. The chaos began to unfold about 10 p.m. Friday, when two 25th Police District officers pulled over a 2001 silver Volkswagen Passat for a traffic stop in the 4200 block of North Broad Street near Hunting Park Avenue. Police said Gregory Alston, 39, of the 4500 block of Fernhill Street - a convicted felon with 21 prior arrests, including for attempted murder, weapons and escape - was behind the wheel.

Mayor Nutter and his security detail were on the scene to assist an injured motorist after an early morning car crash Saturday on I-76 in Philadelphia, according to police radio reports and the Mayor's spokesman Mark McDonald. The Mayor was travelling in his police driven SUV around 2:45 a.m., heading home to Wynnefield from City Hall, McDonald said, when a two-car accident occurred behind them in the westbound lane near Girard Avenue. The Mayor's vehicle was not involved in the accident.

In a bid to escape criminal conviction, a former Philadelphia police officer on Thursday admitted he had sex with a woman while on duty - but insisted the act was consensual, not rape. "She wanted it, she asked to have sex," Keith Corley told the city Common Pleas Court jury, describing what happened with the 32-year-old woman he picked up in West Philadelphia at 3:30 a.m. Aug. 11 and offered a ride home. "Did you think what you were doing was a crime?" asked defense attorney Douglas Stern.

Testifying in his defense, a former Philadelphia police officer today admitted to a Common Pleas Court jury that he had sex with a woman while on duty - but insisted the act was consensual. "She wanted it, she asked to have sex," said Keith Corley, describing what happened with the 32-year-old woman he picked up in West Philadelphia at 3:30 a.m. on Aug. 11 and offered a ride home. "Did you think what you were doing was a crime?" asked defense attorney Douglas Stern. "No sir," Corley replied in a barely audible monotone.

Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey has a message for those taking part in the Occupy Philadelphia protest at City Hall: The Police Department is here to help. At roll call Thursday morning, to coincide with the official start of the protest, Ramsey had the First Amendment read in all districts, as a reminder of the department's role in protecting that right. The exercise will be repeated until officers in all districts have heard it, Ramsey said. In addition, police dispatchers have been regularly reading the amendment and a message about treating demonstrator respectfully over police radio.

All she had to do was aim, squeeze the trigger and pop a bullet into her husband's leg so that he could get an early retirement. What could go wrong? Fortunately and unfortunately, former Camden police Sgt. Jeffrey Frett's wife is a bad shot. She blew a hole through his uniform pants, a source said, but didn't even graze him. Either way, he's out of a job. The 40-year-old Turnersville resident pleaded guilty yesterday to making a fake police communication about the incident, which could have been so much worse.

An experience of mine may have some bearing on what was said in Monday's article ("How useful are police composite sketches?") regarding witnesses. Many years ago, I was in my patrol car when an "officer in pursuit" alert came over the police radio. I was three blocks away. I got within a block when I heard two gunshots. As I approached the scene, I saw an auto come to rest against a pole. There was no one in the vicinity, nor any other cars. When detectives showed up, a man in the corner house told them that he was standing there, that the police had surrounded a suspect, and that they didn't have to shoot the suspect.