WARREN Records show cops misuse e-mail system

The mayor says the police officers' use of the e-mail is 'childish.'
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
and STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A $453,000 system to put e-mail in city police cars has been used to chat about beer, trips to the convenience store and the death of singer Barry White.
The one thing officers don't discuss much over the mobile data terminals is work, according to a review of messages sent on seven days this year.
"This town needs an enema," an officer messaged from his car at the beginning of a midnight shift, mimicking a line spoken by Jack Nicholson's "Joker" character in a Batman movie.
The reply from the other patrol car can't be printed in a family newspaper.
"It is a lack of professionalism and childish," Mayor Hank Angelo said.
Police officials initially declined to comply with a request for e-mail records and gave them out only after city hall stepped in.
"I don't think they are public," Capt. Tim Bowers told The Vindicator, after being told by the city law director they are.
Tried to erase them
After agreeing to release the records, Bowers then attempted to erase the printed chatter between officers before handing them over.
Safety-Service Director Fred Harris intervened and told Bowers only Social Security numbers and other personal information pertaining to citizens could be removed from public records.
"The law director says it is public record, and it is public record," Harris said.
The city bought a computer system for cruisers in 1998 to give officers a way to communicate with one another without using the radios, which can be monitored by criminals, Lt. Joe Marhulik said.
For example, the system can be used if officers want to get out a description of a stolen car without letting the thiefs know police are on to them.
However, a review of hundreds of messages uncovered only a few work-related correspondence.
"A half-million dollars shouldn't have been spent so they can play games and act like idiots," Harris said. "I'm going to tell the chief to review this and instruct the officers on how it should be used."
E-mail units, called mobile data terminals, are installed in cruisers, and the department owns an additional dozen or so hand-held units.
Radios still used
However, police calls, requests to look up license plates and work matters are still primarily handled by radio, apparently giving officers free rein with the text devices.
For the most part, messages are a few words long and, at best, read like patrol car patter from a low-budget movie.
"Sometimes, you just got to stop and smell the gunpowder," an officer declared in the early morning of July 5.
Other times, the taxpayer-funded commentary is more like Homer Simpson.
"Mmm, beer," an officer said at 10 p.m. July 4.
sinkovich@vindy.com
siff@vindy.com