Gilbert to study staffing streets during outages

Some motorists who missed warnings about Monday's power outage in north Gilbert were surprised to drive through a major intersection with nonworking traffic signals and no police officer directing traffic.

One of them was Gilbert Town Councilman Dave Crozier, who drove through the unlit intersection of Gilbert and Guadalupe roads on the way to a dental appointment. "I didn't feel safe going through that intersection, and I was driving a one-ton, double-tank diesel truck," he said.

He called to alert the police department, but then an hour later while watching TV news from the dentist's chair, he saw that the signals were still dead, without even a flashing red, and nobody was guiding traffic as rush hour wore on.

He soon learned it isn't department policy to send officers to intersections during blackouts. Instead, officers depend on drivers to follow state law and treat such areas as four-way stops.

So Crozier asked at Tuesday night's council meeting that the issue be put on a future agenda for further study. Some other council members also appeared to be surprised by the policy.

Gilbert police Sgt. Mark Marino said the department simply doesn't have the manpower to patrol intersections during blackouts, which often happen during monsoon storms, which create other problems that must be attended to.

"We have 169 intersections with traffic signals," he said. "If we were hit with a major power outage, we'd have to use up to 100 of our personnel to handle that."

If a Gilbert police officer is seen standing out in the middle of an intersection while signals are out, as was the case earlier Monday, it's probably an off-duty employee hired by a contractor to handle a planned outage, Marino said.

Monday's power outage, which knocked out the signal at Gilbert and Guadalupe and two smaller intersections to the south on Gilbert Road, lasted four-and-a-half hours until a transformer was repaired. No public safety issues stemming from the outage were reported.

Crozier said the town has backup generators for traffic signals, but the public works department doesn't bring them out immediately, in case power is restored quickly.

Crozier said he rode along with a Gilbert officer years ago who was sent to do traffic control during a blackout, and he doesn't remember officers being conspicuously absent at a darkened intersection since then.

He said major intersections without functioning traffic signals are too much of a hazard to leave them unmonitored by an officer, even if the police department is short-staffed. "It may be why they didn't do it, but it isn't the solution."

Detective David Ramer of the Chandler Police Department said the department generally tries to send someone out to the intersection, depending on the location. "If it's a major intersection, one of the mile (intersections), we're going to get an officer out there to ensure the safety of the motorists."

Crozier said he's talked to people from the Phoenix and Mesa police departments who said they will send officers out to intersections, depending on availability.