Speaking of Wannabe's...........

[slolightbar]

What do you guys think of People who have scanners, who listen on police frequencies, and respond to the scene??? I know of a couple of people who do this, but wondering what you guys think about it??

Thanks alot, and stay safe
Matthew Frank



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Email me for all of your needs in emerency equipment!

[Tackleberry]

Nosey at the least, but then again it is a free country. As far as showing up at the scene, as long as they don't interfere or get involved who cares.

Tac

[movista]

I'm with you, Tac. Don't be part of part of the problem and all is well.

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Peace is not the absence of conflict, it is the presence of justice.

[This message has been edited by movista (edited 10-15-2000).]

[John from Maryland]

We don't mind people listening on scanners. If the job thought confidentiality was that important, we'd have encrypted radios.

I think we worry about people rolling to the scene. It seems a bit much and just contributes to the confusion. On some scenes we do have to worry about movement in the wire (actually the crime scene tape). The presence of more people, especially those who appear particularly interested (for instance,carrying a scanner) just gives me more to worry about.

[Don]

Personally, I would start looking very carefully at someone who kept turning up at crime scenes due to listening to a scanner.

As far as just monitoring the traffic, who cares, it is a free country (more or less).

Oh and John, you have enough to worry about without worrying about this. http://www.officer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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Never make fun of another mans wife, religion or dog, (not necessarily in that order)
6P1 (retired)

[Don]

Hey slo,

I just looked at your profile. Do you by any chance work for Ironman, or are they still in business?

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Never make fun of another mans wife, religion or dog, (not necessarily in that order)
6P1 (retired)

[ZEBRA12]

if we know the people have scanners we call in on cell phones and check out there and stuff.


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Administrator
Dodge R/T Club (http://www.dodgertclub.com)

[GDenman]

Scanner listeners can actually be of some help at times. Of course, there are those times when you don't want to broadcast everything. We went to a scrambler several years ago primarily for dispatching alarm calls to prevent the bad guys from carrying hand-held scanners & hearing that we were on the way but for other types of calls or information as well. Now we're preparing to go to laptops directly in the units which should make listening in on scanners pretty quiet. There's good & bad out of it just like anything else.

I am reminded of the time I was dispatching late one night & put out a BOLO for a gray Toronado coming in on Hwy. 69 weaving erratically. A woman years later told me she was listening to her scanner that night & she woke her husband up & had him get into the hall closet with her because there was a TORNADO headed towards them.

[This message has been edited by GDenman (edited 10-16-2000).]

[Monty Ealerman]

slolightbar:

I think all police transmissions should be encrypted for real-time, then repeater-rebroadcast on another frequency with a few minutes delay.

Perhaps decryption permission and equipment could be issued for legitimate news organizations that would want to get to the scene quickly enough to capture the important images.

The delayed repeater-rebroadcast would still allow monitoring of police transmissions to preserve the legitimate public interest in knowing what the police are doing.

The delay of the public decrypted version would reduce the incentive for irresponsible persons to race off to the scene like kids racing their bikes after a fire truck. I think in most instances a sensible non-police person would not want to be near the scene of a police response.

The tourists could show up 5 minutes later to watch the aftermath.

The real-time encryption would address the concern raised by GDenman about the bad guys using the scanners as an early warning system.

In some areas of Chicago, the gangsters not only use police scanners to get early warnings of police activity, but also use their own business band radios to co-ordinate their responses. The gangsters will probably soon be using encryption themselves as the technology for it becomes more generally available.

Regards,

Monty

[This message has been edited by Monty Ealerman (edited 10-16-2000).]

[Don]

Yes Monty that would be wonderful, particularly when you are taking fire and calling for back up, or when your partner is laying there bleeding to death and you need the paramedics now, not after a radio delay.

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Never make fun of another mans wife, religion or dog, (not necessarily in that order)
6P1 (retired)

[GDenman]

Of course, it could be switched on and off like our scrambler.

[John from Maryland]

Now, Don, you complained when the sheriff put the shortwave radio in the cruiser and did away with the flashing blue lights on the water towers that meant "call the station." This is progress and we've just got to accept it.

Most federal investigative agencies have encrypted radio communications. I do not know how secure or or if it would be prohibitively expensive for state and local law enforcement. I'm also not sure if we could keep up with the encryption/de-encryption race that wouldlikely follow widespread adoption of encrypted communication by local and state police.

Be safe.

[Don]

Hmmmmm, OK I screwed up. I guess I just didn't see the first line of his post. Perhaps that is because when I first read his post he had not edited it? I don't know. Either I missed that line, which does change the meaning in the whole post, or he "edited it out from under me". http://www.officer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

Either way, it now makes more sense.

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Never make fun of another mans wife, religion or dog, (not necessarily in that order)
6P1 (retired)

[Monty Ealerman]

Don:

I did not for an instant suggest introducing a delay into the police radio traffic.

The delay was for the publicly available decrypted version only.

Digital radio transmission encryption does not introduce any appreciable delay into the radio traffic.

Here's a URL for an article on a Motorola system:
http://www.wirelessweek.com/motorola/landmobi/securene.htm

That system has the option of switching the encryption off and on. It does not include a public rebroadcast of stored decrypted results, but such a feature could easily be added.

John from Maryland:

Current DES encryption is secure enough that unauthorized real time decryption, if it could be done at all by the bad guys, would require allocating more resources to the task than would be worthwhile given the magnitude of the advantage to be gained compared to the magnituude of the unauthorized decryption task.

As for expense, new digital radios are currently beyond the budgetary constraints of many departments; however, adding the encryption feature set does not drastically increase the expense.

Regards,

Monty

[slolightbar]

Any more thoughts on this guys?

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Stay Safe Everyone!

Matthew Frank

[NorthernProtector]

Originally posted by slolightbar:
What do you guys think of People who have scanners, who listen on police frequencies, and respond to the scene

People who have no life need something to do too ya know!

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Play And Stay Safe...Wear Your Vest!

[ftrphxcop]

I thought about buying one so that i could better memorize the codes and be completely prepared for the academy. I am having a problem since i already have like 300-4 digit produce codes and all my family's phone numbers and all the doctors, dentists, local pizza numbers stuck in my head. I am really wondering how many more numbers i can fit before the brain explodes http://www.officer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif http://www.officer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

[PatrickM98]

I don't know about your states, but here in KY it is against state law for a civilian to have a radio capable of receiving police traffic in their vehicle. The only exceptions to this rule are members of the news media or city workers.

I think that citizens with scanners can be a help to LE only to an extent. When I was working my security job one night, I heard a call go out that officers were looking for a suspect of a strong-arm robbery in the parking lot of a funeral home directly ajacent to our property. We have some really good CCTV cameras, and I was looking all over the area for the guy. Unfortunatly I wasn't fortunate enough to spot him, and I believe that he got away. Having said that, I very easily could have seen the guy and called police to let them know where he was. Had I not been listening to the scanner, I couldn't have been any help whatsoever to the police.

As to the original question about people responding to calls...that just strikes me as really dumb.


[This message has been edited by PatrickM98 (edited 04-25-2001).]

[phuzz01]

Originally posted by Monty Ealerman:
Current DES encryption is secure enough that unauthorized real time decryption, if it could be done at all by the bad guys, would require allocating more resources to the task than would be worthwhile given the magnitude of the advantage to be gained compared to the magnituude of the unauthorized decryption task.

Monty,
The Federal government disagrees with you. Just in the past 6 months, the government changed the encryption standard from DES to AES (Advanced Encryption Standard).

Alex

[Buddingnovelist]

It's all going to be all but a moot point in our county as far a police radios go. We're getting mobile data terminals in every car in the county thanks to a grant the sheriff was awarded. The MDTs are being installed next week! http://www.officer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

[This message has been edited by Buddingnovelist (edited 04-25-2001).]

[Sotex]

Hell, Chris, I'm still waiting for my office computer to come in!!! http://www.officer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

Anybody want to buy a Remington manual typewriter? http://www.officer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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God, I love my job!-Porthos

[edgar]

I am not a leo but I do have a scanner and listen Frequently. My brother is a cop and I really respect the hell out of what you guys and girls do on a daily basis. I enjoy it but would never chase calls on it. That seems a little off to me.

[Filthy]

Good god man, I get the sh*ts enough listening to the proper police radio in the car, why the hell someone would want to pay out good money to listen to mine and others waffle is beyond me as all we do is get sent to sketchy details of the job and then give enough details after the job for the dispatcher to write off the job card. If any idiot was stupid enough to monitor a scanner in their own time and then turn up to my job then they would more than likely be charged with being a loser in a public place. The only other thing that annoys me about scanners is that the news media usually shows up before I can get there and films me getting out of the car without a hat on so that I cop complaints from the bosses the following day.

[katnn]

Got the handheld that works just fine on all the local freqs as well as the Ham channels. That way I can figure out where NOT to go. Have no desire to stick my nose where it is not wanted or needed. The other advantage is that living in a remote area the folks on the street are a LONG way from any help and should the need arise I would be aware of the need and also able to transmit as needed.

[ukcop]

In the UK, acting on information received through a scanner is illegal.

Most people who listen to them over here are criminals who listen to them for a reason. This is usually whilst committing crime in order to know where the Police are.

One force played a little trick recently.
A spoof report :

The Police radio crackled one night. It said that an alien space ship had landed in this field. Then the police radio said that there were alien life forms coming out of the space ship.

The upshot of it was, about 50 people suddenly turned up to see this space ship. The only way they could have known was by listening to a scanner. OH dear, go straight to court, do not pass go, do not collect 200 pounds.............

UKCOP

[Copper2be]

The words, "GET A LIFE" come to mind. http://www.officer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

[Sig220Man]

UKCop,

Maybe those people were looking for the source of those mysterious "crop circles!"

[Buddingnovelist]

Both of the adult grown-up men I have working for me (one is a SEASONED cop) listen to the scanner at home. I can't get over it. I take a radio home but the damn thing stays OFF!

Chris

[SarcasticByytch]

Originally posted by NorthernProtector:
People who have no life need something to do too ya know!



Hey I resemble that remark!!! http://www.officer.com/ubb/wink.gif

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Hormonal and Heavily Armed.
~~~TRICIA~~~