Police/Fire

Pickup Truck Drives Into Side of Watertown Home

By |

A Watertown resident got a nasty surprise when a full-sized pickup truck struck her house. At about 3:2o p.m. on Dec. 30, the pickup truck headed southbound on School Street crossed the center line, drove up on the sidewalk, clipped a utility pole, hit a bush and then struck the concrete wall on the side of a home, said Watertown Police Lt. Michael Lawn. “The driver had a medical issue causing him to temporarily loose control of the vehicle,” Lawn said. Resident Heidi Kennedy said that her teenage sons often play in the driveway right where the vehicle ended up.

Boston Marathon Bombing

Marathon Bombing Trial Begins, Plea Deal Not Reached

By |

The trial of the accused Boston Marathon Bomber began Monday after attorneys failed to come to a plea agreement and Federal judges ruled the trial should go on in Boston. During the first few days of the week, a pool of 1,200 potential jurors from around Eastern Massachusetts will head to the Boston Federal Court to take part in the jury selection process, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The jurors will consider the fate of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the suspects in the bombing at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon that killed three. He and his older brother Tamerlan also are suspects in the killing of MIT Police Officer Sean Collier. They were stopped in Watertown after a shootout with Watertown Police and law enforcement from other departments on April 19, 2013.

Boston Marathon Bombing

Judge Rejects Marathon Bombing Suspect’s Request to Move Trial

By |

The trial of Boston Marathon Bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsaranaev will take place in Boston after a judge denied his lawyers’ request to move the trial out of state. U.S. District Court Judge George O’Toole Jr. announced his decision on Wednesday. The ruling means jury selection will begin on Monday, according to an article on WBUR’s website. Tsarnaev’s lawyers argued that their client could not a fair trial in Massachusetts because of the heavy media coverage of the bombing, search for suspects and capture of Tsarnaev. Read more here: http://www.wbur.org/2014/12/31/judge-denies-to-move-delay-tsarnaev-trial

Police/Fire

Citizen Follows Drunken Driver, Leads to Arrest

By |

Watertown Police arrested an alleged drunken driver after an alert citizen followed the driver. 

Police received a call from a driver who was following an erratic driver on Dec. 21 at 6:02 p.m.

The driver was spotted on Arsenal Street and the citizen followed the vehicle down School Street to Mt. Auburn Street to Richards Road, said Watertown Police Lt. Michael Lawn. “Officers arrived and found the vehicle parked up on the curb and blocking part of the sidewalk,” Lawn said. “The driver was asleep behind the wheel.”

Police/Fire

Residents Can Create Profile that Will Help First Responders

By |

Residents can create a “safety profile” with information about themselves and their household that could be useful to first responders in an emergency. The profiles are part of Smart911, national public safety service, which has been added to the town’s existing 9-1-1 emergency services. When a resident calls 911, their profile will be displayed sothe 9-1-1 call-taker will have a better understanding of the situation and faster emergency response. “At a time when seconds count, being able to have the information we need to send the correct response teams to the correct location during an emergency will save time and ultimately lives,” said Watertown Police Chief Edward Deveau. “The safety of our community is top priority and this is a way in which we can utilize technology in order to ensure we are offering the highest level of protection to all of our residents.”

Residents can create their Safety Profile online at www.smart911.com for their household that includes any information they want 9-1-1 and response teams to have in the event of an emergency.

Government

LETTER: Fire Union President Reacts to Council Rejecting Contract

By |

As President of the Watertown Firefighters Union, Local 1347, I write today to express my and my membership’s extreme disappointment with the Town Council’s decision to reject the Joint Labor Management Committee’s (JLMC) decision relative to the collective bargaining agreement between the Local and the Town. The tripartite JLMC panel, comprised of a management representative, a labor representative and a neutral arbitrator is empowered by Chapter 589 of the Acts of 1987 to resolve disputes between public safety employees (who by statute lack the ability to go on strike like all the other unions) and cities/towns that have remained unresolved for unreasonable periods of time. In this case, after nearly 6 fruitless years of bargaining, mediation and arbitration the JLMC, after reviewing supportive documentation from both parties and hearing their testimony rendered their decision known as an “award” in late October 2014. The award included the accepted proposals from both parties that this neutral panel believed to fairly represent the wants and needs of the parties collectively. Not all of either parties’ proposals were accepted by the panel.

Charity

Whooley Foundation Provides Gifts for Watertown Kids in Need

By |

Each year, just before Christmas, the Community Room at the Watertown Police Station fills with toys destined for families struggling during the holiday season. The effort is the continuation of the work of the late-Sgt. John “Sonny” Whooley – a Watertown Police officer who made it his mission to make the children in the community a little happier, said Det. David Collins, who oversees the drive these days. Members of the Watertown Police and Fire departments do much of the work.