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Public Safety
In an emergency, residential lockboxes allow access By BETH ANNE BRINK-COX | The Municipal
The field of emergency medicine is always looking for ways to improve response speed, serve more people in need and incorporate newer and better lifesaving techniques. Charlestown, R.I., has come up with a way to do all three, initiating a program that issues lockboxes to residents who meet certain criteria such as age being age 65 or older, medically disabled or having other special needs. The boxes are free to residents who request them and enable police, fire and rescue squads to quickly gain access to them in moments of distress. Chief Andrew Kettle of the Charlestown Ambulance and Rescue Service and police Lt. Phillip Gingerella were assigned the project when members of the seaside town’s local council wanted to get the program funded and started. “We worked with patrolman Mike Carrasquillo, my elderly affairs officer, and Senior Center Director Michelle Vekakis,” Gingerella said. “The town council had appropriated $10,000 from the current year’s budget if we could make it happen.” Gingerella said one method they had heard of to take care of that population was to simply supply elderly residents with a standard realtor box to attach to their front door. “We felt we could expand on that idea and design a program that included a more robust exterior key box. We reached out to a local manufacturer who produces the standard fire department key box attached to every commercial building in the country and asked to see a key box that was just as sturdy” for their purposes. It produced a residential version of the commercial building boxes. Kettle said the Fire Department Emergency Access Box program was the right idea to fit their design needs. As hoped, public reaction was swift and strong. Kettle said there is much interest and a waiting list of residents and families looking to have a box installed. A page on the town’s website with information about the program. The boxes can be requested by family members or caregivers. “If they contact us, we’ll work with the homeowner to get a lockbox installed for them,” he said. Gingerella added once the design was agreed upon, the committee put together an informational flier and purchased 10 boxes to start with. 44 THE MUNICIPAL | MAY 2022
Part of the earliest planning for this project was to print and distribute these flyers, in the hope of generating interest. It was wildly successful. (Photo provided by Charlestown Police Department)
“We decided we would softly roll out the program, with just Mrs. Vekakis mentioning it to some of the seniors around the senior center. Within a few days, all 10 boxes were deployed. We asked the town to purchase 10 more boxes, because we had more requests,” he said. “The program really took off on its own, as one recipient told several of their friends and then the requests poured in. We currently have 55
