Opinion ID: 12
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Policies and Practices as to Recording Calls before the Complex Opened

Text: Before the Complex opened, the City already recorded calls made by public safety employees at the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) as a matter of policy. The EOC served both the Police and Fire Departments but was physically separate from the police and fire stations around the City; it would route emergency calls to the relevant facility when required. Emergency calls and responses, calls about information from the National Crime Information Center and vehicle registry checks, and the talk-around channel on the police radio frequency were all recorded through a Dictaphone system at the EOC, covering fifteen to twenty lines in all. EOC employees were informed when they began their jobs that their conversations would be recorded and potentially reviewed. [3] The EOC was not relocated to the new Complex. Before the summer 2002 move to the Complex, the central Police and Fire Departments were located at two separate facilities within the City's old Public Safety Center. The telephone calls at both of these facilities were not recorded. The old telephone system for the police operated differently than did the new system at the Complex. There was a central station area where a desk sergeant sat and where clerks answered telephone calls to the station. Some calls were routed from the City's EOC; others were emergency and nonemergency calls that came directly to the station. Some employees used the phone for law enforcement and administrative work and had their own telephone lines. Others used shared lines. Police Department employees also regularly used the phones for personal calls. The setup at the firefighters' old facility was different. This facility contained telephones that could only be used to make calls between the different fire stations. Emergency calls were not routed to the station through the telephones but rather through an intercom system that broadcast to everyone at the station. There was also a separately installed telephone that the firefighters themselves arranged with the telephone company and paid for so that they could make personal calls while on duty at the station.