Philadelphia Police Citywide Feed to Cease Broadcast

[jcardani]

Hello members,

It's with deep regret that I decided to voluntarily cease broadcast of my Philadelphia Police citywide feed on Radio Reference. It will stop sometime today. I will continue to feed Camden County Fire/EMS digital communications as normal.

Several recent events affected my decision. Last week the New Castle County police went fully encrypted. In a Delaware newspaper article last week, the reason for encryption given by the chief of police is "to thwart smartphone apps that essentially turn the devices into mobile police scanners, allowing criminals to monitor police activities as they happen." In addition, within the past week another Philadelphia police feed started broadcasting South division district communications. Since inception, my Citywide police feed only broadcast a few citywide talkgroups, and not district or special unit comms. Although feeding district communications is not against Radio Reference's terms of service, I did this for officer safety reasons.

My decision to pull the feed is simple. I do not want Philadelphia police to give the same excuse countless other agencies in the country are giving to going encrypted - smartphone app access to feeds. We all know that criminals usually would not be able to efficiently use the feed audio to commit crimes, but it's the perception that they are there that causes these decisions.

I would absolutely feed horrible and not be able to live with my decision if I kept the broadcast going and Philadelphia announced in the future they encrypted because of my feed!

Finally, this is not meant to be a post against law enforcement feeds, but I felt that members needed to understand the reasoning for me making this difficult decision.

I apologize for any inconvenience my decision may cause the listeners or Radio Reference.

Thanks to the members and feed administrators for all of the support over the years!

 

[CommJunkie]

The worst part is that we all know the "mobile phone app" excuse is just that - an excuse. People don't like being listened to. In the age of NSA wire-tapping and electronics advancement, people just don't like being heard.

Thanks for the service you provided. It was a valuable asset to people like myself who work in the city but can't monitor them any other way.

 

[phillydjdan]

Joe

This looks to be the end of an era here in Philly. First the PFD feed, now your's. Looks like all we're left with is a bunch of railroad feeds. That's no fun! lol. Anyway, thank you for your service!

I fully understand your reasoning. My belief is that had certain database updates not been done, this may not have had to happen. I was considering putting a feed up for J Band off of this site, which would mean no smartphone app to listen, but I frankly don't listen to PPD that much to dedicate one of my scanners and another sound card to do so. All those wreck chasers and the like are probably going nuts! Sorry fellas, but you'll have to spend $400 or more on a scanner like the rest of us. Joe ran that feed using a several hundred dollar scanner and paid his internet provider every month so you could listen for free. Let someone else do it.

Those who listen to PPD aren't missing much anyway. Numerous people shot daily, numerous idiots snatching iPhones from people's hands. Oh, and I bet the crime rate dropped 50% since the feed was taken offline, isn't that right Commissioner Ramsey? lol


In a slightly unrelated note, I see under the feed details for the new PPD South feed that it reads:

***PPD has been having radio issues, so the audio may not always be clear. They are working on it.***

That's strange. I've heard nothing about PPD having any radio issues. In fact, to my knowledge their radios have been working just fine. So I'm wondering what "they" are working on? Psst, get a better antenna, or better yet, a yagi, so YOUR scanner doesn't keep cutting out lol

 

[Fiorentino]

An unbelievable amount of officers just drove past my apartment window on North Broad. It had to have been most of the 22nd district and quite a few that looked as if they were coming from different districts. As always when I'm home, I threw on my headphones and tried to tune to your feed....

I'm very sorry to see it go, but it is going to force me now to get off my butt and finally join this community. I've been putting off purchasing a scanner for years now.

I wanted to thank you for the time it lasted. Besides the hobby aspect to it, I felt a lot safer being able to tune in when it seemed like SHTF nearby where I live. For example, I have no idea what the hell just happened a couple blocks from me and if I should avoid the area or not. Looked serious.

Can anyone point me in the right direction of an FAQ for beginners? Thanks

 

[phillydjdan]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 4.0.4; LG-MS870 Build/IMM76L) AppleWebKit/535.19 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/18.0.1025.166 Mobile Safari/535.19)

Fiorentino,

At this moment the PSR-800 is your best option, as it is currently the only scanner that can track phase 2 systems (which philly is eventually switching to). If you are willing to wait, I would see whether or not Uniden's new scanner that is coming out can also track phase 2 systems or not. I would not waste your time or money buying any of the other digital scanners out right now, as they will fall silent in a couple of years when philly does make the switch. If you go with a PSR-800, I would be glad to help get you programmed.

 

[phillydjdan]

PhillyFireFeed has a J Band feed up right now