By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, January 26, 1992
The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03
Just in time to comply with a federal law that takes effect today, borough police on Friday installed a device that will enable people with speech and hearing impairments to contact police headquarters.
“This is long overdue,” Detective Michael Burns said Saturday. “It opens a whole new world of communication for people.”
The legislation, called the Americans With Disabilities Act, was signed into law in July 1990. Under one of its provisions, police must be equipped with a Telecommunication Device for the Deaf, or TDD.
New Milford is one of more than a dozen Bergen County police departments that either recently purchased such a device or, like Allendale, have been using one for a number of years. But spokesmen for more than 40 other Bergen departments contacted Saturday said they still lack the equipment.
Most models of the machine are about the size of a small console telephone, with a typewriter keyboard and a display screen.
To contact police, users need a matching device at home. They type their message and it is carried through phone lines to police headquarters, where it is displayed on a screen and copied on a printer. The home units also can receive messages.
Lee Brody, a pioneer in the development of the TDD and now a vendor of the devices, said about 6,000 families across the state have one in their homes, most of them in Bergen and Middlesex counties. However, many people with impairments do not have the devices, he said.
Burns said he first became aware of the law’s requirement in October, when a company wrote him a letter trying to sell the department a TDD. After researching the law with the federal Justice Department, he solicited prices and found they ranged from $300 to $4,000. Burns said he opted for one that cost $625.
“It’s a state-of-the-art unit which allows us to handle any type of call,” he said.
The law mandating the equipment is a far-reaching measure requiring that any place serving the public be made accessible to the disabled.
ID: 17366997 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)