You know, I'm not surprised at all that any law establishment would monitor this forum. They know where we meet, they know who we are. Heck some of the people we meet with are part of the team (dispatchers, firefighters, radio techs ect..) I can comfortably say that everyone I have met in person so far is a responsible adult using scanners as both a hobby and a tool for there profession.
I feel safer having a scanner by my bed side when I hear halks fly over my house, I like to know when the bank down the road from my house just got robbed. In many cases anything the police, fire and ems don't want people to hear they use cell phones or cad systems. I don't know anyone associated with Calgary area scanning who has attempted to watch or listen to anything past what we are "Allowed" to listen to via scanners. Why? because we are not interested in abusing the system...
If I hear something close to my house, I listen and watch for suspects but I don't go chasing after rouge cars and join in the hunt. Thats not my place.. Chances are at 6 o'clock news i'm going to be getting the same "Be on the look out for. ____________" that I heard hours earlier on the radio.
I think by now the law agencies know who are the big bad guys, who are the gangs with radios. I don't think they care much when traffic 1,2,3 are sitting in there cars talking hockey or what they are going to eat in the area. This is because they are waiting for there quota of speeding cars, not talking about the next drug bust.
9.9/10 other then surveillance and the odd time Tac.. you hear nothing of critical importance that could cause alarm or them to blow an operation. Police and law are not stupid they know how easy it is for the wrong people to get a scanner.
But they also know that many of us and our small knit community on this board use our scanners and radios for the greater good in the end.
An example of this was a car accident I was first on scene to outside of Vulcan, My scanner was tuned to RCMP and prov amb as soon as the 911 call was placed I sat with an injured victim and I assured her help was on the way. She was able to hear the help coming which calmed her down significantly.
Fire nets and Hams are another significant reason for scanning and radio. I could go on and on... just my two cents. If I ever see suspect A___________ running down the street after a car jacking, Id be the first on the horn with police, not joining in the pursuit. I guess the point i'm trying to drive home is that its not shocking that agency's monitor this board. There could be tips, leads or even something they missed written here. We are all responsible and smart enough that we don't post any names or critical information on this public access forum.
Long living scanning and god speed to our local agencies for keeping us safe.
Sorry if I got a little off topic or carried away.
