Yarmouth PD recordings: Caller offered to pick up used needles

YARMOUTH, Mass. – A Yarmouth Police Department investigation into allegations that a dispatcher told a resident to pick up used needles indicates the claims are false.

On Tuesday, Boston 25 News spoke to Josh Joaquim who said he had to place three calls to have the needles disposed of and was at one point ordered to put them in a tin can himself and throw it away.

When the initial story aired, Deputy Police Chief Steven Xiarhos told Boston 25 News he would review the recordings of the call to investigate the claims.

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Those phone recordings were released, and on them Joaquim offers to dispose of the needles himself.

• Caller: I was just curious. Did you ever get anybody out there to pick up those hypodermic needles?
• Dispatch: Not as of yet.
• Caller: Not yet?
• Dispatch: Nope.
• Caller: Oh, that's great. We got kids walking down these roads. I'm going to go pick them up and throw them in my fireplace, and I'm going to burn them, is that cool?
• Dispatch: Yea, you could do that, uh. Either that, or you can put them in a tin can or something like that an dispose of it properly, like in a trash dumpster or something.
• Caller: In a tin can. What, like a soda can or something?
• Dispatch: Yea.
• Caller: Alright, perfect. I'm going to go do that.

In the end, police ended up calling the fire department and they disposed of the needles.

In a statement to Boston 25 News Thursday, Yarmouth Police said "for the past few days, we have reached out to Josh in private asking him to meet with us to discuss what occurred and listen to the tapes and exactly what was said. Unfortunately, Josh has declined."

The department went on to say it remains confident in its integrity and ability to provide professional community policing to all members of the community.

Cox Media Group