Police chief tells Foster council storm routing left town calls at Scituate, urges separate police phone lines

The police chief told the Foster Town Council during public comment on Dec. 12 that storm-related failures routed Foster’s town hall phone traffic to Scituate and that the arrangement slowed emergency response and hindered investigations.

"This has to be this is a public safety issue. We need our own phone system with our own caller ID," the chief said, describing multiple incidents in which calls intended for town offices reached Scituate during severe weather and then had to be relayed by radio to local dispatch.

The chief said when town hall lines failed, the police station’s calls were also routed offsite and that officers sometimes receive personal calls when trying to reach residents because the police station caller ID displays as the Foster Town Hall. "A lot of times, they don't pick up, and they don't even listen to the message," the chief said, adding that the routing has delayed responses during recent storms that produced downed trees and a rollover crash.

A council member corroborated the problem, saying they also experienced the same routing and had to use social media and personal contacts to reach staff. The highway director said he received multiple public reports about trees and was forced to field those calls on his personal cell because he could not reach the police or town offices directly.

Council members and staff acknowledged the concern and one member said staff had already begun researching the cause of the town hall phone failures. No formal motion or vote addressing a change to the phone system was recorded during the meeting.

The issue was raised as a public safety request rather than a formal agenda item; council members discussed next steps to research causes and potential corrections. The council did not adopt a directive or set a timeline at the meeting.