WISCASSET, Maine — For the past several years, microphones installed in the Lincoln County Communications Center recorded the internal conversations of dispatchers and supervisors. Separate from the recordings of 9-1-1 calls, the microphones were placed in the supervisors’ office and the dispatch room, recording every word spoken in those locations.
Installed during the tenure of former Lincoln County EMA and Communications Director Tim Pellerin, those microphones have now been disconnected. Following a discussion in executive session at the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners’ Dec. 1 meeting, commissioners voted to remove the microphones.
“I’m not sure why they were placed there, but I didn’t think it was kosher to tape people’s private conversations,” District Three Commissioner Mary Trescot said.
There is no other county office or department where microphones are installed and conversations are recorded, Trescot said.
Cameras are in use at other departments, such as the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, but microphones recording conversations where employees gather to meet are not, Trescot said. The microphones were not used to record 9-1-1 calls, which is standard in communications centers, but rather the conversations of communications center employees.
“I thought it (the microphones) was an invasion of privacy,” she said. According to Trescot, in addition to the dispatch room, where the internal dialogue of dispatchers was recorded, microphones were placed in the supervisor’s office, preventing supervisors from having a private conversation with a dispatcher.
District Two Commissioner and Chair Bill Blodgett was on the board when the microphones were installed. According to Blodgett, the microphones were installed, in addition to other camera equipment at the communications center, at Pellerin’s request a number of years ago.
Due to the amount of time that has passed since the microphones were installed, Blodgett could not recall the reason for the request, he said. The microphones, “were brought up the other day and we decided they weren’t necessary and should be removed,” Blodgett said.
Pellerin, currently town manager of Rangeley, also could not recall the reason for the microphones’ installation, he said. According to Pellerin, current employees of the communications center worked there at the time of the installation of the microphones. “I’m sure they remember,” Pellerin said.
Current Lincoln County EMA and Communications Center Director Tod Hartung said the microphones were installed before his tenure. Anecdotally, it is believed they were installed due to an accusation regarding a staff member, Hartung said.
In the three and one-half years Hartung has served as director, the recordings were only viewed once, due to a personnel issue, he said. The recordings were not monitored during his tenure and stored for 30 days before they were automatically deleted, he said.
Due to the negligible use of the system, it was determined the microphones were not needed, Hartung said.
According to Lincoln County Administrator John O’Connell, the commissioners’ discussion of the microphones occurred in executive session. Other than saying the vote to have them removed occurred in public following the executive session, O’Connell would not comment further.
Hartung said he was unaware of the cost of the recording system. Asked about the cost of the system, O’Connell declined to comment.
According to Hartung, since the Dec. 1 vote by the commissioners, the system has been disconnected, the wires to the microphones cut, and the countdown to the elimination of the last recorded conversation is on.