Apology Not Accepted
In a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture, Northeast Utilities Service Company of Waterbury, Connecticut, was issued a $19,000 fine for inadvertently cancelling a license for a Private Land Mobile Radio Service (PLMRS) station WQFD453 in June 2007, and then later operating on that cancelled frequency for a period of three years before a request for Special Temporary Authority (STA) was granted.
In response to a Letter of Inquiry issued by the Commission in May 2011, Northeast Utilities asserted that as soon as they knew they were operating under a cancelled license, they requested both a temporary and regular operating authority for the license and “took immediate steps” to develop a process for unauthorized operations in the future. Despite these claims, the FCC responded that they have “long established that administrative oversight or inadvertence is not a mitigating factor” that warrants a reduced fine, and that taking corrective actions after the fact “does not negate its liability for the instant violations.”
Threatening Police Officers on Their Own Channels?
The FCC found Estevan J. Gutierrez liable for operating without authorization on police frequency 159.150 MHz, which is licensed to the Las Vegas, New Mexico, Police Department (LVPD). The FCC accused Gutierrez of not only causing the LVPD to operate on an alternate frequency as a result of the interference, but threatening LVPD officers and their families during his transmissions. Gutierrez was apprehended and found liable for a forfeiture amount of $25,000 for willfully and maliciously interfering with the LVPD’s licensed operations on that frequency. Notice of Apparent Liability and Forfeiture
Category: Enforcement Corner