Rats: Portsmouth Police Battling Some Serious Vermin

For six months, the Portsmouth Police Station has been home to some unwanted tenants: rats.

Portsmouth Police Chief Stephen DuBois said the situation continues to generate some public health concerns for police officers when they report for duty and have to change into their uniforms in the locker room or eat in the lunch room.

"My officers have actually killed a couple of them," said DuBois following Monday night's City Council meeting at City Hall.

DuBois said some of the rats have been pretty brazen and territorial. "One of them recently challenged one of my officers in the bathroom," he said.

Police officers have set up bait traps and the city's Public Works Department, which is responsible for the building's maintenance, has brought in some exterminators, but all to no avail.

DuBois said he has no idea where the rats came from and he has never seen a rat problem this bad during all the years he has been on the Portsmouth Police force. The police chief said part of the problem is that the police station is located in the basement of the city municipal building, which is also an old building.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, rats can carry several diseases that can be transmitted to humans via vermin waste, direct contact with rats or just by breathing air that may be tainted by rodent fecal matter or urine.