Hagerstown Police Department

[Gilligan]

I have a few questions about the Hagerstown Police Department, so in starting a thread to ask them, I figured it may be convenient to use the thread as a place to gather any useful radio information on HPD as well. So if anyone has any good info regarding HPD, please post it in this thread.

 

[Gilligan]

Does anyone have a current patrol beat map for Hagerstown PD, that would show what general areas the units patrol in?

Since the repeater channels are 1-3 and channel 6 refers to talkaround on channel 3, it's a safe bet to assume that channels 4-6 are all talkaround for the repeaters. Can anyone actually confirm this as a fact?

Nearly 15 years ago, I asked an HPD officer how many channels they had (they had the same system then that they do today), and he told me they had six channels. As has been mentioned in another thread, the county is apparently setting up several repeaters on the 800 MHz interoperability channels, so there is the possibility that they have added those channels to their radios. Any information on this?

And then for general information, I think it's helpful to know where HPD usually sits, at least on busy nights like weekends. I don't know about other areas of the city, but I know there are usually a few units sitting at the Cancun Cantina West by the Clarion Hotel on the Dual Highway on Friday and Saturday nights. I believe it's a convenient spot for them since it's right there on the Dual and they are close to that bar for any incidents that may arise, considering the place is usually very busy during those times.

 

[Gilligan]

This information was compiled several years ago on the yahoo group called Scan-HagerstownMD.

Here are the unit designations for the Hagerstown Police Department:

Alpha - 1st shift (A)
Baker - 2nd shift (B)
Charlie - 3rd shift (C)
Delta - Detectives
DB - ??
Edward - Bike patrol
FM - Fire marshals
Henry - ??
K9 - Canine
PK - ??
SR - ??
Zebra - Narcotics

Unit 1 is the chief.

Single digits after the number are supervisors or officers.
Double digits are sector patrols or cars.

PK may refer to parking enforcement. These units seem to be active downtown.

SR may refer to special response.

Zebra units (narcotics) and are supposed to be on a secure frequency. It is unconfirmed whether Zebra units refer simply to narcotics units or to the entire Narcotics Task Force (which includes officers from other agencies as well as HPD). The idea of them having their own encrypted channel agrees with the statement on the Sheriff's Office website about their communications. There is also the possibility that they may be using Nextel.

 

[MdListener]

Gilligan,

You might as well relax and just be patient for HPD frequency info. It will all be moot in about a month or two, as they will switch to the new county TRS. Everything except the main dispatch talkgroup will be encrypted. Their old (current) 800 MHz freqs will be used in the new system for data transfer, for both HPD and the sheriff's dept.

 

[Gilligan]

It is now confirmed that channels 4-6 are talkaround for channels 1-3. I was also informed that the Special Response Team (SRT) has channels 7 and 8 in their radios, but the frequencies of these two channels are unknown.