Thieves used smart phone app to monitor police chatter as they broke into cars

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bauta106

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Smart phone scanner

We are going to see more and more encrypted traffic in the near future. It was those live feeds that got me back into scanner listening. Pro 106 was quite an upgrade from the Regency ten channel i had in the late 1980's . Im guessing it was the alarms, and not the short delay in transmissions that got them busted. I might be wrong, but i think the price of a smart phone exceeds the cost of the Scanner i bought. It's to bad that a couple of bad apples can ruin it for all of the law abiding listeners.
 

gr8rcall

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I don't know! At least, it IS a crime to use a scanner while committing a crime!

A lot of agencies would have encrypted anyway, but it seems like a number of them DO believe (true to some extent) that MANY criminals use scanners.
 

quarterwave

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A 5-10 minute delay on all streamed transmissions would help thwart the effectiveness of using an app to monitor in real time, and would not really affect the legit hobby listener.
 

rdale

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I don't know! At least, it IS a crime to use a scanner while committing a crime!

But they didn't use a scanner, so that charge will have to be dropped.

A 5-10 minute delay on all streamed transmissions would help thwart the effectiveness of using an app to monitor in real time, and would not really affect the legit hobby listener.

They were caught because they used the app, and it has a delay, so it actually was beneficial to the cops!
 

kd8ati

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But they didn't use a scanner, so that charge will have to be dropped.

They were caught because they used the app, and it has a delay, so it actually was beneficial to the cops!

I don't know about that. Out-of-state case law proves otherwise. I am sure prosecutors here will try and say having a scanner app is the same as having a real scanner. It has been done before.
Police scanner apps illegal in Indiana - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

The average app has a 10 - 30 second delay. Most criminals know this. In the example above, that feed only had a 3 second delay. In most cases I don't think a 10 second delay will work in favor of police.

I do agree that using such an app to assist in a crime should be an extra charge. However I think that the Indiana state law that says that even having such an app is also illegal is just wrong. Sorry but there is something seriously wrong with a law where the simple act of downloading something from the google play store or itunes turns you in to a criminal. But again that just goes back to lawyers convincing judges that having an app is the same as having a scanner
 
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rdale

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I don't know about that. Out-of-state case law proves otherwise

Other state laws might be worded differently...

"A person shall not carry or have in his or her possession in the commission or attempted commission of a crime a radio receiving set that will receive signals sent on a frequency assigned by the federal communications commission of the United States for police or other law enforcement, fire fighting, emergency medical, federal, state, or local corrections, or homeland security purposes."

A cell phone is clearly NOT using frequencies assigned to those purposes, otherwise there would be a little more worry about rebanding :) Plus a cell phone is not a radio receiving set.
 

searingxheretic

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A cell phone is clearly NOT using frequencies assigned to those purposes, otherwise there would be a little more worry about rebanding :) Plus a cell phone is not a radio receiving set.

Cell phones do all have a radio receiver in them. Cell phone companies and patents still refer to the chip set as a phone "radio".

Sent from my cm_tenderloin
 

rdale

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Cell phones do all have a radio receiver in them. Cell phone companies and patents still refer to the chip set as a phone "radio".

It doesn't receive public safety frequencies. Either way, I've talked to the legislature last year and they are aware of the need for app related legislation if they want to cover apps.
 

quarterwave

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But they didn't use a scanner, so that charge will have to be dropped.



They were caught because they used the app, and it has a delay, so it actually was beneficial to the cops!

The delay is only incidental, not intended. I can hear my local feed in near-real time many times, and others it can vary from 1 to maybe 5 minutes behind. Depends on network congestion, etc.
 

rdale

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Right, but the end result is that no matter what - there is a delay. It is not possible to have realtime on the cellphone with RR apps. (I've never heard it in any stream ever, so not saying it can never happen - it just isn't here.)
 

quarterwave

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If cell phones didn't "receive" they wouldn't work. They are just very complex 800/900 & 1900MHz full duplex transceivers now days....
 

rdale

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If cell phones didn't "receive" they wouldn't work.

Not sure I follow... The law doesn't say "receiver" - it says "receives public safety frequencies." Clearly cell phones do not have full scanners inside of them.

Free free to continue to debate, but as I mentioned I did meet with a senator last year who is highly interested in public safety and he agrees that the existing law does not cover apps.
 

quarterwave

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Not sure I follow... The law doesn't say "receiver" - it says "receives public safety frequencies." Clearly cell phones do not have full scanners inside of them.

Free free to continue to debate, but as I mentioned I did meet with a senator last year who is highly interested in public safety and he agrees that the existing law does not cover apps.

I didn't say it was capable of receiving public safety frequencies...I said a cell phone works on it's own frequencies and is most certainly a radio in itself. The debate for lawmakers, or arm chair lawyers will be whether any current regulations can be skewed to mean a radio based device receiving the same content, regardless of the fact it is a captured, digitized and re-distributed as data to a cell phone app that then converts it to analog audio.

Gotta go...my congressman is calling.... LOL, Good Night!
 

searingxheretic

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I don't think the charges are dissimilar to when they tack on "illegal use of a communications device" charges to drug dealers when they are arrested. I think the charges will stick. The phone is a radio/communications device and it was being used improperly to commit a crime.

Sent from my cm_tenderloin
 

pepsima1

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By all of GOD's means just take down the app streaming RR owner and founder. Just stop this non-sense and take it down for good.

You are killing the the scanner market and the industry by keeping app streaming up to broadcast to the world.

You are just forcing everybody to ENCRYPT at this point.
 

quarterwave

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Maybe Uniden and Radio Shack need to buy the spun off Broadcastify from Lindsey and do it them selves...smart business man shouldn't be ashamed to make a profit.
 

blantonl

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By all of GOD's means just take down the app streaming RR owner and founder. Just stop this non-sense and take it down for good.

You are killing the the scanner market and the industry by keeping app streaming up to broadcast to the world.

You are just forcing everybody to ENCRYPT at this point.

haters gonna hate... :roll:
 
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