Gate-Crashers Thought It Was a Riot

ALBANY, N.Y. — A make-believe prison emergency, intended as a training game for corrections officers, sent flak-jacketed state troopers off on a wild-goose chase Thursday with sirens screeching and a helicopter fluttering above.

At least 24 State Police squad cars zoomed down the state thruway at mid-afternoon, responding to a distress call issued by the special tactical squad used to quell prison riots, police and Corrections Department officials said.

“Something over the air made them think something was wrong and they responded,” said State Police spokesman Ron Clark, blaming the Corrections Department for using the wrong radio frequency during its training exercise.

Jim Flateau, a state Corrections Department spokesman, said about 40 members of the Corrections Emergency Response Team were conducting routine training exercises when the troopers crashed the party.

The Keystone Kops-like episode was so embarassing that both the police and corrections officials begged reporters to go to the other agency for answers.