Answers sought in cutoff of police telephone service
BY AMY ROSEN Staff Writer

MANALAPAN - Police Chief Stuart Brown has filed a complaint with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) against Verizon on behalf of the Manalapan Police Department.

The chief 's complaint stems from an incident that occurred on May 14 when telephone lines that are used by the police department for emergency and general police calls were disconnected for several hours without any prior warning.

According to Brown, the last call that came into the police station on the evening of May 14 was at 10:50 p.m.

At midnight a representative of the Freehold Township Police Department radioed the Manalapan Police Department to inform officers that Freehold Township had received a call from someone trying to contact the Manalapan police to check on a loved one in the township (Manalapan).

That person could not get through to Manalapan police on the phone and called the Freehold Township Police Department for assistance.

At that time the officer on duty contacted Manalapan police Capt. Chris Marsala, who implemented an emergency backup system in which calls are routed to theMonmouth County Radio Room and messages are dispatched to the Manalapan Police Department by radio.

After several attempts were made to contact Verizon, the Manalapan officers were informed that the telephones had been disconnected due to a billing issue, Brown said.

The Manalapan officers went through several chains of command at Verizon before finding a person who said they did not know why the police department's service had been shut off, but stating that it should not have been shut off. That person said the telephones were shut off completely and could not even generate a work order, but eventually managed to rectify the situation at about 2:30 a.m. May 15, according to Brown.

Contacted by the News Transcript, Verizon spokesman Rich Young said, "Upon hearing the chief 's concern, we immediately started an internal investigation to see exactly what happened. While we do not yet have a definitive answer as to the root cause, I can assure you Verizon is taking this matter very seriously and the investigation is ongoing. In addition, the 911 emergency notification system was not affected by this incident. Anyone calling 911 during that period should have been connected."

Doyal H. Siddell, the public information officer for the BPU, said, "Issues involving safety and security are of paramount importance to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. Board staff will be doing a thorough review of Verizon's role in the incident in question."