Wisconsin Waste Watchers: Alarm Bell No. 11: We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Waterproof Equipment!

Skip the Waterproof Batteries and Mics?

When you’re a firefighter in a blaze, you need equipment that won’t melt from fire or meltdown due to water.

But not in Milwaukee.

The Citizens for Responsible Government (CRG) investigation into the Open Sky radio scandal has found that firefighters repeatedly received batteries and microphones that were not waterproof.

CRG reviewed 600 pages of internal fire department documents. And, at 11 critical points over the last few years, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett failed to intervene to help his cops and firefighters to be safe with radios that work.

The 11th Alarm Bell should have rung in the Mayor’s office when repeated fire department correspondence detailed non-waterproof batteries, non-waterproof microphones, stickers placed over radio speakers, wrong batteries, and radios determined to “intrinsically unsafe.”

From 2007 through 2009, there is a timeline of failure of the radios is detailed in the internal documents.

What is NOT found in any of the documents received from the Milwaukee Fire Department under Wisconsin’s Open Records Act?

Guess what?

Not one email, letter, note, card, postcard, or phone message from Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.

NOT ONE! Nada. Nothing. Complete radio silence from a Mayor who is supposed to be protecting his cops and firefighters from danger.

Instead, Barrett has allowed cops to be sent into violent crimes scenes with radios that don’t work. He’s allowed firefighters to be sent into three-alarm fires with intrinsically unsafe radios. And, it’s only a matter of time before a cop or firefighter is killed because of the failed radios.

It’s a scandal. And it’s a failure of leadership that has been under-reported and, in many cases, unreported.

Take a look at the timeline of failure detailed below. It’s a disgrace to our cops and firefighters.

Wrong Batteries, shelf life issues, undocumented accessories, wrong labeling, wrong batteries, wrong profiles, cases don’t fit, mics not submersible. Nothing to see here.

Unless you want to see the proof!

Exhibit 28 – Summer/Fall 2007 (link to full record)