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TRENTON - The K9News-Revival recently learned that the Trenton Police Department has been providing free burglar alarm monitoring for Gwendolyn Long Harris’ home in the western section of the city. Although the city does not provide such monitoring services to it’s residents, Harris’ home has been directly connected to the police department for over three years. Harris served as Chief of Staff for Mayor Doug Palmer until 2002 when Governor Jim McGreevey appointer her Commissioner of the state Department of Human Services.
An anonymous city employee told the K9News-Revival that Harris had an alarm system installed in her upscale Fisher Place home in the summer of 2000. At that time, Harris had alarms installed in thirteen separate places in her home, and each alarm is connected directly to the Police Communications center alarm-monitoring panel. Since August 2000, the Communications Bureau has received 31 alarms directly from Harris’ residence. The source further related that in addition to the free monitoring, the city might be paying for the telephone line that connects Harris’ home with the alarm panel. The city employee stated that the last time police responded to an alarm at Harris’ residence was on January 16, 2004, and that the latest alarm was received directly on the communications center alarm panel.
A former police dispatcher, who requested their name be withheld, told the K9News-Revival that it was common knowledge among the dispatchers that Harris’ alarm was being monitored at the communication center. “That’s a tremendous perk,” the former dispatcher said. “Everybody else in the city has to pay an alarm company for this [service],” The former dispatcher said. “Not only is this free [for Harris] but the alarm comes right to the police station.”
According to the former dispatcher, an alarm activated at Harris’ residence is transmitted via telephone line to the alarm panel in the communication center. When the alarm is received, an alarm-number is displayed on the panel. The dispatcher then enters the alarm-number into the police Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system and the address and type of alarm that was triggered appears automatically.
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The former dispatcher told the K9News-Revival that after
entering the alarm into the CAD system, the dispatcher has to follow an on-screen protocol for handling the alarm. “The dispatcher has to call the residence after the alarm is received. If somebody answers the phone they have to tell the dispatcher the ‘code word’ indicating everything is ok. The dispatcher does the job of an alarm company operator; and, because this was Gwendolyn Long’s [Harris] house, it was a priority. Everything else had to wait until the protocol was followed,” said the former dispatcher.
An owner of a local alarm company was reluctant to discuss the protocol they use for handling burglar alarms. However, the owner did respond with an emphatic “Yes” when asked if the he would rather have the police monitor his alarm instead of a commercial alarm company. The alarm company owner indicated that the cost for having an alarm system like Harris’ monitored commercially would be about $400-$500 a year.
Both the former dispatcher and the anonymous city employee told the K9News-Revival that Abraham Hemsey was the Communications Director at the time the alarm system was installed at Harris’ home and added to the CAD system. Published reports in the Times of Trenton indicate that Hemsey was named the Communications Director shortly after control of the
Communications Bureau was shifted from the Police Department to the Department of Administration. In 2003 Hemsey was named interim Police Director by Mayor Palmer. Shortly after, Hemsey was replaced by Santiago and demoted to Deputy Director.
According to a published report in the Asbury Park Press, Gwendolyn Long Harris will resign from her post as commissioner of the department of Human Services on February 15, 2004. On March 1 Harris will become the director of the New Jersey Urban Development Project at Rutgers University. Her annual salary at Rutgers will be $110,000.
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