Bad Guys Using Scanners!

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gregmoss

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Geez! Litsening too my scanners tonight while a police dispatcher warn officers, that the (BAD GUY) of interest. Is known for having scanners in his possession and hostile toward officers. They mention this four times. Bad guys and scanners don't jive. I'm a Law Abiding Citizen, and that burns me up too see a holes like this exploit out hobby too break the laws.:(
 

lugoffman

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gregmoss said:
Geez! Litsening too my scanners tonight while a police dispatcher warn officers, that the (BAD GUY) of interest. Is known for having scanners in his possession and hostile toward officers. They mention this four times. Bad guys and scanners don't jive. I'm a Law Abiding Citizen, and that burns me up too see a holes like this exploit out hobby too break the laws.:(

yea i know it people like them is the reason why we cant go on vacation and drive through new york with out worring about getting pulled over and going to jail for having our scanner with us
 

cpuerror

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Its a shame criminals have discovered scanners, this will bring a sure death to the hobby. In the future, there may be little more to scan than HAM and FRS. Either that, or the scanner scene will become like the FTA scene. Manufacturers will release standard scanners, and various hacking groups will produce firmware to "expand capabilities".
 

zz0468

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hoser147 said:
Bad guys with scanners hurt the hobby, and a dispatcher or others doing this hurts even more.....................

Huh? What did the dispatcher do wrong?
 

mancow

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Exactly, I would be pissed if the dispatcher left that bit of info out. It seems pretty important to me.

zz0468 said:
Huh? What did the dispatcher do wrong?
 

VPD463

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Bad Guys

This is irritating to me also, but don't blame the dispatcher. It could be important to the officer's safety to know that the criminal may be aware of actions taken to apprehend him because of his ability to hear communications.
 

Viper43

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Around here they just call the officer on his cell phone instead of putting it over the radio. That takes care of the perp knowing whats up.
 

Airdorn

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Think that's bad? How about all those bad guys using guns? Isn't ANYTHING sacred? All that does is screw up my shooting hobby... seems like everybody wants to take the guns right out of my hands because of what those bad guys are doing to the image of guns and those that love them.

I'm a law-abiding gun enthusiast. I love to shoot clay pigeons out at the range. But now I either got to jump through a bunch of hoops to have a gun, or I can't have one at all! Now when someone sees the gun rack in the back of my pickup and the carrion strapped to my hood, they call out names to me like 'redneck' and 'hill-billy'.

And now after the bad guys have devastated the gun hobby, they're going after the scanners. Wtf is up with that? Don't they know that, in doing so, they'll get the law all up-in-arms and paint scanners and those that use them in a bad light?

What's next, encrypting over-the-air communications?
 

manross

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If I were to guess, "hoser" didn't mean any harm and probably meant going over the air just perpetuates the problem. When I was on the line before retiring that kind of info was frowned upon to be aired. It would be done by MDT's or by cells. It is counter-productive to air this when it can be used as an advantage against the very bad guys your going after. Or what commonly is called "Counter-intellegence" :wink: Although if MDT's and cell phones were not available, it might be necessary to air it. This is why the departments narc/vice/swat channels should be encrypted always or use Nextels for these types of operations. Just my .02 cents worth.

P.S. Hoser if my assumptions on your post is wrong and/or out of place....I apologise.

Marty
 
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n2mdk

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I heard the dispatcher here once tell an officer that the person is known to have a scanner in his vehicle, thought it sounded funny, no big deal. They always warn the officers that there are guns on the premises, no big deal either. Think the warning about firearms is more important to know, especially since most of these dispatches are for domestic or other civil disturbances.
 

iMONITOR

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n2mdk said:
I heard the dispatcher here once tell an officer that the person is known to have a scanner in his vehicle, thought it sounded funny, no big deal. They always warn the officers that there are guns on the premises, no big deal either. Think the warning about firearms is more important to know, especially since most of these dispatches are for domestic or other civil disturbances.

Absolutely, I totally agree! But a criminal being privy to police communications via a scanner can be just as deadly.

In Michigan, when they run my license plate, they get a heads-up that I have a CPL(CCW), which is good also. The police need to be informed with all the facts, as much as possible!
 

hoser147

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The dispatcher did nothing wrong I was merely trying to point out the dispatcher said it 4 times. The information is important for officer safety thats understandable, I just took it that the dispatcher was an anti. No problem Marty, I could have stated it a little more clearly. In my area stuff of sensitive nature is almost always, in a closed conversation And with out any knowledge of the incident. If it was one of those things that just happened and was on going thats great and is a urgent need to know. Ive always been pro LE and most of us are too. Just a bad slam to the scanner hobby all the way around. Thats why Im all for stronger penalties for used in th e commission of a crime, over beating up the 99% that are law abiding citizens................Hoser
 

manross

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hoser147 said:
Thats why Im all for stronger penalties for used in th e commission of a crime, over beating up the 99% that are law abiding citizens................Hoser

EXACTLY !!!!

Marty
 

mjthomas59

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Although it isn't friendly to hobby, encryption does have its place in the LE arena. Fire channels being encrypted... not so sure... but life and death do hang in the balance when criminals know where you are, where you are going to make entry, your gameplan if multiple officers are involved(because this requires coordinating over the air), and where your backup is.

I actually thought it was a D Felony in most areas to use a scanner in the commission of a crime, perhaps i need to hit my state statute book again to confirm this.

Cell phones do seem to be the next wave of communication in public safety. If it is even remotely sensitive in my area it goes over cellphone instead of the radio. You may hear the dispatcher tell the officer where to go and the officer say he is in route, but you as the scanner hobbyist have no clue if he is going there for a shootout or for a barking dog.

Also, scanners weren't just "discovered" by criminals. The availability of scanners and the fact that anyone can get one at RS with the programming has helped get the good guys into the hobby, but also allowed the criminals to get in without having any knowledge of the hobby. The professional or "good" criminals have had them since they came out, its just now that they are starting to be used by teenagers to get away with petty crime, and your avg. burglar to get away before the fuzz shows up on scene.

I agree it does give the hobby a bad name, thats just how it goes though. All we can do is just follow the laws as they apply to us. Its not like they are going to start running background checks on you every time you buy a scanner.... or are they?
 

cpuerror

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mjthomas59 said:
Its not like they are going to start running background checks on you every time you buy a scanner.... or are they?

If they can't even stop them from getting guns and ammo, I don't think they will have much luck keeping scanners out of their hands.
 

kb2vxa

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Aw gee, this is breaking news??? Trot on down to the video store and check this one out.

He Walked by Night (1948) starring Richard Basehart is a black-and-white police procedural with film noir styling, crediting Alfred L. Werker as director. In reality, most of the film was directed by western/film noir director Anthony Mann. The film, shot in semidocumentary tone, was based on the real-life actions of Erwin "Machine-Gun" Walker, a psychopathic killer whose story and capture inspired one of the film's actors (Jack Webb) to create the radio and later television program Dragnet.
 

CLTX11

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It happens more than you know. A local PD around here busted a meth lab and found multiple scanners inside.
 

SigIntel8600

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gregmoss said:
Geez! Litsening too my scanners tonight while a police dispatcher warn officers, that the (BAD GUY) of interest. Is known for having scanners in his possession and hostile toward officers. They mention this four times. Bad guys and scanners don't jive. I'm a Law Abiding Citizen, and that burns me up too see a holes like this exploit out hobby too break the laws.:(
Scanners used by criminals .....tack on 3 years to their felony sentence. Levy mandatory fines so when they are chilling in prison a portion of their money sent by mommy or wifey is garnished and used to update and maintain public safety communications.

Leave law abiding citizens with scanners alone and continue to allow them access to monitor.
 
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