Cable Cut Hits Police Radio System

A construction crew digging in Tampa (Fla.) cut a Verizon cable with 2,400 pairs of wires, including phone lines used by the city’s police department for carrying radio traffic from remote receivers back to the comm center. The 9:40 a.m. incident also cut regular telephone traffic for thousands of subscribers. It took until 4 p.m. to restore telephone service for the police department, officials said, and in the meantime officers limited their radio traffic and used mobile laptops to send text messages back-and-forth with dispatchers. Read more about the incident here.