Two emergency phones on the Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus that were defective and unable to call Security have been partially repaired. The S-Lot phone, adjacent to Homewood Field, and the H-Lot phone, located next to the tennis courts between the Alumni Memorial Residences, now call Security with functioning sirens, but callers are still unable to hear communications from Security through the phones. Security can now hear everything a caller says through the two phones.
The failure of the phones to operate normally is due to malfunctions in underground wiring. The S-Lot and H-Lot phones were unable to call Security at all for a prolonged period due to damaged wires that were severed during construction. At first, Telecommunications repaired the phones so that callers could hear Security on the other end, but this caused the sirens to be disabled according to Lieutenant George Kibler.
"Originally, we had it so you could hear Security, but the sirens didn't work," said Kibler. "We decided it would be better if the sirens worked [so as to alert campus intruders]."
As soon as a button on an emergency phone is pressed, a siren goes off for approximately 10-13 seconds, said Kibler. Because callers are not able to hear Security when making calls from the phones, Security will be "en route to the location of either phone as soon as a call is made," said Kibler.
Kibler said it would not be long before the phones were fully repaired, but Telecommunications has not given a specific timetable. "They haven't given me anything specific [as to when the phones will be fixed]," said Kibler.
"The underground wiring is complicated. You can't dig it up and fix it 'one, two, three.' We're sensitive to getting the phones fixed as soon as possible and Telecommunications will have them repaired as soon as they figure it out.
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