Worcester MA - PD app has scanner

[zerg901]

Worcester PD moves into app space - Worcester Telegram & Gazette - telegram.com

WORCESTER — Instead of craning your neck to look out the window to see why police cruisers are converging on your neighborhood, grab an iPhone or Android-based phone and listen to the Police Department's radio chatter directly from its newly developed application for digital devices.

Santa Cruz CA PD also has an app with scanner feed

 

[AZScanner]

Nice to see a couple of PD agencies that don't see scanner feeds as the enemy...

-AZ

 

[rapidcharger]

Worcester and Santa Cruz... two police departments that obviously have nothing to hide.

Of course, he who provides the feed also controls when it goes down. Perhaps a better strategy though then encryption.

 

[mlmummert]

Interesting. Does anyone know how close to real time they are? In other words, is there a delay?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[gr8rcall]

This is great! As the article says, maybe some other departments will follow in their footsteps!

Nice to see a department that WANTS to have us listen in!

 

[zerg901]

Worcester Police Department (Official) - Worcester, MA - Government Organization | Facebook

more info here on right side - 2 comments that the scanner feed does not work too well

 

[MTS2000des]

Take note, this is doing it RIGHT..officially provided streams.

 

[gtaman]

I like this idea. I think that's the cleanest feed I've ever heard. The fact that they are probibly using a radio in dispatch for the feed.

 

[JokeInsurance]

Like everyone else has said, I hope other police departments take notice and follow these footsteps. And perhaps departments such as Washington DC Police Department and Allentown Police will take notice.

 

[lazierfan]

I would be completely ok with RR going with archive only with police and sheriff traffic.

A proposal for Mr. Blanton to try this configuration with test feeds or perhaps a willing feed provider.

Live police traffic is an obvious target for encryption. Membership to RR and access to archive only and no live traffic is a solution to be at least pondered.

IMHO Fire, aircraft, Railroad, Dog catcher traffic is not eligible for this proposal. The entities proposing encryption on any of those should seriously get professional help.

 

[zerg901]

lazierfan - there are a couple of problems with your proposal.

Your proposal will not stop bystanders from tweeting the action in real time.

Your proposal will prevent residents from hearing a real time threat that is in their neighborhood.

Perhaps the feeds can be set up for real time in the local area - and on a delay in other areas.

 

[JoeyC]

Like everyone else has said, I hope other police departments take notice and follow these footsteps. And perhaps departments such as Washington DC Police Department and Allentown Police will take notice.

I would be concerned that any department that is now running encryption and puts up a live stream or a clear channel for dispatch is doing so only for appearance sake. These clear channels would simply be an announcement channel and nothing of any interest will be carried there. Didn't some other department recently reverse their decision to encrypt only to put up an announcement channel because the media griped loudly enough?

lazierfan - there are a couple of problems with your proposal.

First he would have to get Mr Blanton (and the streaming sheep) to acknowledge there is an actual problem. So far I haven't seen that they do.

 

[lazierfan]

I would be concerned that any department that is now running encryption and puts up a live stream or a clear channel for dispatch is doing so only for appearance sake. These clear channels would simply be an announcement channel and nothing of any interest will be carried there. Didn't some other department recently reverse their decision to encrypt only to put up an announcement channel because the media griped loudly enough?



First he would have to get Mr Blanton (and the streaming sheep) to acknowledge there is an actual problem. So far I haven't seen that they do.

Simply saw my idea as a stopgap to discourage the few of our feed providers from dropping their feed altogether- that's the only 'problem' I was focused on. Not really a RR problem, no.