Heard something new...

muhockey86 · #1 (**permalink**) 08-03-2007, 02:09 AM

STL county was in pursuit of a car wanted for larceny, as the pursuit enters JeffCO, JeffCO deciedes not to get involved with only misdemeanor charges. Festus however decided to lay out spikes south of highway A. Festus 54 keys up on county to advise on the strips. Is it normal for a self dispatching agency to just key up on the county channel? I've never heard that.

nascarfan999 · #2 (**permalink**) 08-03-2007, 06:58 AM

I've heard it in some counties before, but as for it being normal, I would call it a county by county basis, and I don't monitor Jeff Co ever.

mjthomas59 · #3 (**permalink**) 08-03-2007, 08:59 AM

I wouldn't call it normal, however if that agency/officer has permission then it is ok. I heard the same thing happen here in Saint Charles County when a county deputy had 2 wanted felons bail out near New Melle. New Melle (which is dispatched by Wentzville) radioed for dispatch to contact Saint Charles County and see if the watch commander would let the New Melle units switch over to the county frequency so they could all work together on tracking down the 2 suspects. The watch commander granted permission and with the help of a helo with infrared they were able to catch them.

Now does that happen all the time? I seriously doubt it. Most of the time other agencies don't want anyone else but them on their frequency. That being said, almost any cruiser with a decent radio has all the surrounding counties frequencies programmed in it and they are set to both rx and tx so in the event of the emergency it is only a matter of turning the dial to what channel they need. Now why didn't homeland security think of that for interoperability.... i guess that wouldn't have cost a billion dollars and would have made WAY more sense.