B&E Suspect Captured By RR Listener

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Mylan

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Here is a newsworthy story:....
Although RR was not specifically mentioned, my Ohio County,WV feed was detrimental in capturing a B&E suspect this afternoon... The cops were extremely cold in their search when a listener called 911 to report the suspect's whereabouts and soon thereafter actually apprehended him.

Civilian hears about manhunt on iPhone app; tackles and... | www.wtov9.com

If anyone cares to listen to the archives of this call to Gashell Run Rd , it begins right about noon and goes on for an hour or two.... At first the radio was on scan but soon after the first deputy's arrival, when the foot pursuit began, I locked both radios to the sheriff's TG. Also, the initial deputy was injured and transported to the hospital meanwhile another officer stopped and detained a possible "getaway" vehicle.... FWIW there has been a rash of daytime burglaries in that part of the county recently and hopefully with this incident, the police have the perpetrator....
 

northscan23

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Isn't it supposed to be illegal for someone to use a scanner to try to apprehend a fugitive? I know he was trying help, but the guy could be charged with obstructing law enforcement. If you see someone that you heard on the scanner that they are looking for call 911, but let the officers do their job!! Don't try to play Batman!!
 

greenthumb

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Any kind of public assistance can be helpful to law enforcement. They don't work in a 'vacuum'. :)

Good find-
 

N2JDS

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St. Peters, Mo
Here is a newsworthy story:....
Although RR was not specifically mentioned, my Ohio County,WV feed was detrimental in capturing a B&E suspect this afternoon... The cops were extremely cold in their search when a listener called 911 to report the suspect's whereabouts and soon thereafter actually apprehended him.

Civilian hears about manhunt on iPhone app; tackles and... | www.wtov9.com

If anyone cares to listen to the archives of this call to Gashell Run Rd , it begins right about noon and goes on for an hour or two.... At first the radio was on scan but soon after the first deputy's arrival, when the foot pursuit began, I locked both radios to the sheriff's TG. Also, the initial deputy was injured and transported to the hospital meanwhile another officer stopped and detained a possible "getaway" vehicle.... FWIW there has been a rash of daytime burglaries in that part of the county recently and hopefully with this incident, the police have the perpetrator....

How was your feed detrimental, sounds more it was helpful. I tried to follow the link, but went to the main news page.
 

burner50

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Any kind of public assistance can be helpful to law enforcement. They don't work in a 'vacuum'. :)

Good find-

In one smallish town that I used to live in, if you mentioned scanner on the phone with the dispatcher, they would cop an attitude, and when they put the information out on the radio they would mention that the information came from 'scannerland'. Mostly because of one particular Baffuhn.

It is assumed that anybody who listens to them is an ambulance chasing rubber-necker who just likes to see blinky lights.

I heard them give out a shots fired call for fireworks (at my house ;) ) so I called and said that it was just fireworks, and the information was not forwarded to the officers. :roll:
 

kma371

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Isn't it supposed to be illegal for someone to use a scanner to try to apprehend a fugitive?

Illegal to help? Uh dont think so.

It's illegal for the criminal to use the scanner to assist in his escape. That's for sure.




Sent from my iPhone 4 using Tapatalk
 

DickH

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Isn't it supposed to be illegal for someone to use a scanner to try to apprehend a fugitive? ...

My, but you have a wild imagination! It's not illegal to listen to a scanner and it's not illegal to give info. to the cops.
 

oregontreehugger

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Good job to the guy for helping nab this crook. Probably should have stopped at calling 9-1-1 in case the dirtbag was armed, but so be it.
 
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In one smallish town that I used to live in, if you mentioned scanner on the phone with the dispatcher, they would cop an attitude, and when they put the information out on the radio they would mention that the information came from 'scannerland'. Mostly because of one particular Baffuhn.

It is assumed that anybody who listens to them is an ambulance chasing rubber-necker who just likes to see blinky lights.

I heard them give out a shots fired call for fireworks (at my house ;) ) so I called and said that it was just fireworks, and the information was not forwarded to the officers. :roll:

I think you misspelled Baffuhn...wasnt it with a "g"?

LOL
 

swstow

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Erlanger Ky
their is a difference from using a scanner to go look for someone and just listening and seeing that subject go by, Yes if that guy went out looking for the subject he could get in some trouble, but given that we was at work and cought sight of the guy is a different matter
 

durango5550

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their is a difference from using a scanner to go look for someone and just listening and seeing that subject go by, Yes if that guy went out looking for the subject he could get in some trouble, but given that we was at work and cought sight of the guy is a different matter

agreed....
 

w2xq

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For those expounding on the use or illegal use of a scanner, the answer is at the state level and perhaps at the county or municipal levels as well.

In 1977 or 1978 -- I don't remember -- I was asked to take the county van to Bass River Twp (Burlington County, NJ) and provide ARES relaying communications back to Mount Holly. (It was a good thing I took my own 2m radio; county EOM didn't realize the van's unit wasn't working.) Fire departments from the western end of the county could not talk to their units at the Bass River State Forest fire. Two firefighters died when the wind changed direction and trapped them with their truck. After that experience I took suggested wording to my local state representative who thought well of the idea and introduced a bill to amend the law to allow radio amateurs to have EMS-band reception capabilities in the car; in NJ any ham with a newer 2m HT or mobile radio had wide-band coverage from 138 to 162 MHz. A few legislatures later the Secretary of State (previously in the legislature) asked that I come to the Governor's for signing of a modification of the motor vehicle statute 2A:127-4.

(The horrendous fire led to the death of simplex operations and the building of the current Burlington County TRS, as shown in the RR database.)

For those who remember the long hot summer of 1967 and Watts when large cities were burned by rioters (NYC, Trenton, Camden and Philadelphia around here), notably Philadelphia enacted a total ban of buying, selling and using scanners at home and in the car. Scanners came off the shelves of RS and other sellers inside the city limits. The law was eventually repealed.
 
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Mylan

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ok #1 I must apologize to loumaag for not noticing the "read before posting..." thread and thus inadvertently omitting a location in the thread title... #2 Yes I definitely meant instrumental instead of detrimental... It was very late and I wanted to get this up before I went to bed and obviously wasn't thinking straight...

Now as for this incident... If you listen to the end you will hear the dispatcher repeatedly tell the cops that the calling party was told to observe only and not to approach him because the police were less than five miles away

I also have to say that while I'm glad I "helped" capture this guy, I hope that the publicity of this incident doesn't cause a sore spot with the local authorities in realizing how easy it is for their comms to be monitored and they then decide to encrypt more often.... If you think about it, all these live streams make it super easy for criminals to monitor police communications while committing their illegal acts and while most states have additional penalties for utilizing police radio for just that, do you think the bad guys really care about that if they think it will help them to be successful in their venture?...... I wouldn't be surprised if a LEA boss were to take that into consideration assuming that more often than not it'd be the bad guy listening for the cops to be called rather than the good guy bolo'n for the bad guy....As a member of the latter category, I know we are many but do the police feel the same way? I mean before, we had to go out and get a scanner to be a do gooder or a do badder and now most people have that capability already in their pocket.....

I just hope that in the end here, the agencies involved are thankful that they got help in capturing this guy rather than being jealous that they were totally cold in their search and that had a random citizen not made the capture (or observation) for them, he probably would have gotten away to strike again.
 

SCPD

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Another good reason normal frequency channels should be left open non encrypted. Oh, but then that means paper work for the few lazy cops out there when they catch a suspect.
 
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