Columbia Police Roll Call?

[Sifter]

Anyone hear it tonight?

[muhockey86]

I don't recall hearing a "roll call" when I used to monitor CPD.

[Sifter]

Originally Posted by muhockey86

I don't recall hearing a "roll call" when I used to monitor CPD.

I have the audio archived on scanamerica.us for my police feed, last night around 9:15-9:45. Something was activated, not sure why.

[muhockey86]

Probably the drunks downtown...

[nascarfan999]

Don't listen to Columbia personally, but a possibility could be an emergency alert being activated if the Columbia PD has that capability. I know some departments have such a feature that can be pushed to set off a tone. Dispatchers are then to do an immediate role call to determine the cause of the tone. In some cases, the radios are coded so that the dispatcher knows who set the tone off, thus avoiding the need for a role call.

Of course, it's also possible they are just deciding to do a routine role call such as that done by some troops of the highway patrol (I know troop B does a role call on at least some night around 12:30AM).

[Dak48]

Years ago, our local department did hourly radio checks on the half-hour. They have long since abandoned that practice, and the last time I heard a roll call being done, was when an officer was missing in the 80s when I was working at the state pen.

Interestingly enough, when they called the number 301 there was no response. The dispatcher immediately choked up and had to be replaced by another dispatcher to finish the roll call. The reason being? 301 was the dispatchers fiancee and he had gotten himself taken hostage by two felons. On a side note, she left dispatching, went back to school and became a lawyer, and is now a Judge.

It really impacted the department, and I heard later as it was all unfolding the PD Assistant Chief come on the radio system and talk to the officers on the street, calming them and telling them to pull together and help find our officer, whom we will find.

It was all pretty scary. End result? 301 somehow got himself fee and eluded his captors, and they were caught shortly after his escape. 301 still works to this day and is a very nice guy. I met him when he was around 20 and a cadet at the PD, and I was around 18.

So hopefully, the roll call the OP posted about was nothing like this and just a radio procedures issue.

[muhockey86]

Nope, if they do a roll call its something good...CPD doesn't do hourly radiochecks...

[Sifter]

if you head over to scanamerica.us Boone County, Missouri Live Police, Fire, and EMS Scanners and go to the archive, listen to 2-12-09 around 9:30pm, you will hear the rollcall. Maybe someone else can pick up on something I missed.

[muhockey86]

Yup its defiantly something special....especially when the school resource (SR) officers are out at 9:30. They called a handful of units multiple times. CPD has a lot more units on at a given time for this to be a roll call. CPD has a new "crime task force" made up of a few officers to take care of the trouble spots...this could be it?

[nascarfan999]

I had a chance to listen to the audio from the role call, and here is my take...

Around 9:20-9:23, there are a couple instances of tones going off over the channel. Without being a regular monitor of Columbia I cannot say what these tones are, but the 2nd of the tones may be the initial cause of the role call (see below).

Around 9:24PM (8 minutes into the 9:16-9:30 tape), the dispatcher contacts SR4 inquiring about the units with SR4 and their radio status. SR4 then inquires to dispatch whether this is due to an emergency button going off. The dispatcher replies that there was a "partial activation." Once it is determined that it did not come from SR4 or the unit(s) with SR4, the dispatcher then starts the role call.

My interpretation of this is the 2nd tone (a very fast two tone that is repeated 3-4 times) may have been the activation of the emergency button on a radio of a unit (likely accidental). Some of these systems have the capabilities of determining which radio (and thus which unit) pushed the button. Based on the dispatcher's phrase of "partial activation," my inference is the dispatcher received some information to believe SR4 was the source of the activation. Once it was determined this was not the case, then a full role call was completed. As for the extra units, in other situation I've heard, a role call like this would include EVERYONE who has a radio equipped with the emergency alert button (likely everyone with a radio). This would include all road officers and supervisors, detectives and other officers not normally on the radio, animal control, and corrections officers (if Columbia has a city jail). In addition, some non police units may also have radios. Examples I've seen in the past include building inspectors and street department units. Now, given the time of day, I wouldn't think many of those units would be on duty at the time. One last possibility would be any Mizzou security officers. I do not know what kind of communication capabilities the university has with the PD, but if they have radios they would also likely be included in the role call.

I know this explanation isn't 100% foolproof, but I feel it is the best explanation possible at the time.