Phones
Our phone system at the police station will be programmed with an
"Auto Attendant." When you call the police station, allow the system to ring
until you reach a messaging center. (We are asking that if you have a need for the police, either for an emergency or a complaint, you get in the habit now of dialing 911 instead of calling our station to report the situation and have the police dispatched).
Once you reach the message center, please listen to the available options
and choose the option that will direct you to what you are looking for. Some of the
options available will be -
"If this is a Police, Fire or EMS emergency, hang up and dial 911" (The reason for having you hang up and dial 911 instead of forwarding you is by forwarding your call, your geographical location is lost in the transfer. Having you call 911 directly allows the 911 dispatcher to immediately know your name, phone number and exact location of where you are calling from.
"If you need the Water & Sewer Department, please press 4"
"If you need the Electric Department, DPW or Town Highway Department,
please press 5"
Our options menu has taken into consideration most of the common calls that would come in to our department. We ask that you choose the option listed that you are calling about. If for some reason none of the options fit your needs, the last option will allow you to choose to press a number to connect you directly to a 911 dispatcher. Bear in mind that by doing this, as mentioned above, your geographical information will be lost in the transfer. The list above is just a brief overview of some of the options that will be available, there will be several others, so please listen to the entire menu before selecting an option that does not fit your needs, but again, if your call is an emergency, please hang up and dial 911.
There will also be an option that will allow you to listen to an emergency message if the need arises. For example, a large and lengthy power outage generates hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of phone calls to our department from people requesting information on the status of the outage. The emergency message will contain all the information readily available to the Police Department that you would need to know, such as cause for the outage, length of the outage, numbers to call for a shelter, etc. The message will be updated through the course of the outage as information becomes available. These messages will be set up to give you all available information at the time, listening to the message and then calling 911 to speak to a dispatcher will not benefit you in gaining any further information. We again ask that you listen to the message and try again later if you are looking for more information. We are attempting to curtail the excess number of phone calls that will go to the 911 center by people just curious as to why the power is out or how long it will be out.
Part of our operating procedure has accounted for emergency situations such as a power outage as listed above. In the event of a major emergency situation, we will staff our station with an officer or civilian dispatcher during the duration of the emergency, regardless if 911 will be dispatching us or not. We feel this is necessary to provide a level of safety and protection to our citizens during an emergency and it will allow you to come to the station if you need to and have a person there to speak with.