A police officer says his life was in danger because of problems with his communications radio. Now the police union says there's not enough radio channels for the officers in some districts. WAVE 3's Dina Kaplan reports.
Police officers have described a frightening scene at 19th and Rowan Monday night. That's when they say a suspect grabbed for a police officer's gun, but the officer was unable to call for backup because of equipment failure.
"I definitely don't want to be in his shoes," said FOP Vice President Jon Pugh. "Like I say, that's life or death."
The FOP says an officer's radio is his lifeline for help. But on the night of November 8th, one officer was struggling with a suspect who tried to disarm him, and Pugh says the officer couldn't get through on his radio to call for backup. "The officer tried to get on the radio but couldn't, because the traffic on the radio was too busy."
The FOP has said for weeks that the police department is underfunded, and part of the problem is there are fewer radio channels available to officers in urban areas.
But Louisville Metro Police officials say the FOP may be exaggerating the number of officers who share channels. "Numbers are not going to be as significant as I think are being represented," says Lt. Col. Steve Conrad.
But Conrad acknowledges there is a problem and have hope that things will improve in the future. "MetroSafe is the long-term solution to the problem. We have struggled as a government to deal with the radio situation, but the mayor has made a significant commitment to finding the funding."
According to the police department, city officials hope to raise millions of dollars to put MetroSafe into use by the 2006.