Has anyone helped out a PD about a call heard on your scanner?

[Tim-in-TX]

I think that, after reading all the comments, one "rule" stands out among others. That would be USE COMMON SENSE....for those that posses it at least. If you assess the situation and use sound judgment, then common sense should tell you what to do from there...call or don't call; follow or don't follow, get involved or not; etc., etc. No two situations are ever the same, so use your brain.

 

[commstar]

does that even work when you call a police station? i would hope their technology is a little better then that....

*67 when used on a 7-digit line does prevent any ANI information from passing. 800, 911 etc different story. *67 does not work on toll-free/wats lines as the agency is paying for the cal therefore entitled to the billing information- which is the real reason they offer wats number tip lines in the first place. If the ycould get the info from *67 7-digit llines then they would not bother.

Unless someone called the phone co. and had the switch data preserved, it would likely be gone in 12-24hrs. After that it is gone. Perhaps a creative, well funded search warrant MIGHT find it if they were able to do a massive search of all billing records. Not sure they would go to that trouble or if it is even possible in most parts of the country/phone systems.

 

[hoser147]

Probably one of the best things Ive seen scannists get involved in is when there is a search for a child or elderly person. Usually within an hour of the info going out in my area there are a bunch of scanner listeners and hams show up to aid in the search. They will show up with radio's in hand, and 4 wheelers in the back of trucks. Fortunately the longest on was for a 9 y/o girl who was unfamiliar with the area and was lost in the state park and she was found within 3 hrs. Alot goes thru your mind in that time but she was safe and lost in the dark. That Ive seen bond alot of Public safety officials and enthusiast for the good in a common cause.............Hoser

 

[lugoffman]

I was just wondering if for example your local PD is looking for a possible drunken driver and they gave the plate over the radio and you happened to be driving in the area and heard it on your scanner and you're behind the car they're looking for , should you call 911 and tell them you heard it on your scanner and have located the vehicle they're looking for? How does a Police Dept. react about ppl that have scanners and want to be helpful? Any experience, tips, or comments. Also is it better to stay annonimous and keep driving after they stop it or could you pull over and let the cops know it was you that called it in. I just don't want to get in trouble if I ever want to help.

Well they might get upset to interfer but in a case like what I did, I dont think they would care. And most have heard in south carolina about Vinson Filyaw,the man that held the little girl in a bunker and did some pretty bad things to her. Any ways he tried to rob some one at a pizza place for there car and stuff. And we was in the area when the call came over the radio and I drove around tring to find the sick o , and we was stoped by a local sheriff we told him what we was doing. And all he told us was to not get out the car if we seen him to call it in and try to follow him with out being seen by him, but I guess in some cases its helpfull and in others its best to stay out of it unless they are dangering other lives.

 

[Stick0413]

A few months ago there was a robbery and the get away cars description was announced over the radio. Well on my way home I see a car fitting that exact description at a gas station. I called it in and told the dispatcher I was listening to a scanner and thats how I knew about the car. She immediatly sent several officers over there. The car turned out to be stolen and abandoned but was related to the robbery.

 

[Stick0413]

Reading through the positive and negative things here. I think the biggest thing is this. Don't go out of your way with something you hear from your scanner (i.e. chasing calls, etc.) because that could not only endanger you but could actually endager the LEOs. Now if you are driving and see something, someone, etc. that they are looking for by all means call it in.

 

[EncryptionMan]

So you're saying if you would be behind a vehicle your local PD or whatever is looking for, you would not call it in? I though most police departments would be happy to get tips from civilians. Isn't that the idea with neighborhood watches and stuff and being able to stay annonomous.

It appears you already have the answer to your own question. Civ's getting involved is asking for trouble and an easy way to put yourself in harm’s way. Best option is to let the police / responders do their job and if you see something you feel is relevant call the local non-emergency number (In case your concerned with them giving you grief). Mention you heard it on your scanner and feel what you just saw would be of interest to them. Do not speak in code or radio language. Keep in mind not all call takers dispatch (you will also just sound like a fool)

The department (in most cases) will be happy you called but did not take action

I think if you were a true witness (by not whacking a call heard on a scanner) to an officer in a fight for his or her life (example a small female officer fighting a large man) you may be able to offer assistance or you witness someone else in a life or death situation. But once the pros are on scene stand back.

Use common sense (for some that may be hard)

 

[pharmakopp]

Been a police/fire/EMS dispatcher for four-plus years in two small towns, one of them full time. Here's my take:

I always assume that dozens of people are listening on their scanners. I have to assume this, because generally there are (unless I got screwed and am working the overnight shift). Everyone in small towns are nosy, and hyperprotective about their property. I can't tell you how many times I've received calls from "concerned local citizens" (bonus points to anyone who gets the reference ).

Generally I thank the caller, take the information they have, and their name and callback number. I'd rather make someone feel appreciated, so that they call when they see something next time (not to mention so that they're more inclined to vote in favor of us when the town meetings come around) than alienate them and kill off an information source. Granted, not everyone in my department is like this, but I'd say the majority are.

Now, a few things to keep in mind:

1. If you're calling a small town, understand that most of them only have one dispatcher on at any given point. This is how it is at my department. Thus, when something goes down, the dispatcher is busting his or her ass getting everything done, they're under stress, and they're alone. This may precipitate some measure of frustration or impatience when their attention is divided into a fourth, fifth, or sixth direction.

2. If you're calling a city department, understand that they never hire enough dispatchers, and it's stress from the get-go. This generally causes 'em to be very blunt and jaded, among other things.

Of course, there are bad dispatchers out there. Bad eggs in every profession. But I honestly feel that people don't usually understand the dynamics involved, especially in small-town dispatching, when they get upset over anything other than stellar, velvet-glove treatment from the department.

 

[FlashSWT]

I live in an apartment complex with two "phases." One is older and Two is newer, they have entrances on two separate major roads and are separated by a large field with a single driveway connecting them.

A few months back I heard a disturbance call get dispatched (involving baseball bats) right as I was getting home. Right as I pull up to my building several of the subjects who are obviously involved come across the field from the other phase. Long story short, PD units can't find the disturbance because it has moved across the field to my side. I had no problem calling dispatch and letting them know where the subjects had gone, she thanked me and 30 seconds later the units moved over to the right place.

.

 

[de784]

done it twice

I work in a service field that being said I usually have a scanner with me in the service truck. on two occasions I have called 911 to regards a call were pd was looking for someone,one was the pd put out info on two wanted people and the car they were in during my travels this car happened to be ahead of me I called 911 said you are looking for these people,911 dispatcher asked how do you know told them my name and said I heard it on the scanner,dispatcher said thanks and they made the arrest,other was pd was looking for 4 teenagers who stole some bikes I was one road over and when leaving I saw the four called 911, again said the 4 teenagers you are looking for are on this street,pd was two blocks over looking for them once again got a thank you from the dispatcher and the arrest was made.one thing to remember as others have said don't put yourselves in harms way no citizens arrest,don't expect to be called back and given a thank you award. If the pd is looking for someone that has done a crime and you see them by all means call the location in or you might be the next victim.

 

[mjthomas59]

Been a police/fire/EMS dispatcher for four-plus years in two small towns, one of them full time. Here's my take:

I always assume that dozens of people are listening on their scanners. I have to assume this, because generally there are (unless I got screwed and am working the overnight shift). Everyone in small towns are nosy, and hyperprotective about their property. I can't tell you how many times I've received calls from "concerned local citizens" (bonus points to anyone who gets the reference ).

Generally I thank the caller, take the information they have, and their name and callback number. I'd rather make someone feel appreciated, so that they call when they see something next time (not to mention so that they're more inclined to vote in favor of us when the town meetings come around) than alienate them and kill off an information source. Granted, not everyone in my department is like this, but I'd say the majority are.

Now, a few things to keep in mind:

1. If you're calling a small town, understand that most of them only have one dispatcher on at any given point. This is how it is at my department. Thus, when something goes down, the dispatcher is busting his or her ass getting everything done, they're under stress, and they're alone. This may precipitate some measure of frustration or impatience when their attention is divided into a fourth, fifth, or sixth direction.

2. If you're calling a city department, understand that they never hire enough dispatchers, and it's stress from the get-go. This generally causes 'em to be very blunt and jaded, among other things.

Of course, there are bad dispatchers out there. Bad eggs in every profession. But I honestly feel that people don't usually understand the dynamics involved, especially in small-town dispatching, when they get upset over anything other than stellar, velvet-glove treatment from the department.

Excellent points. Not only about the number of people listening to scanners, but the sad realities of dispatching. I've noticed a pretty ridiculous trend in the number of younger people "taking advantage" of the hobby and using scanners to get away with crime. Whether it be major crime or not, if i get a suspicious vehicle call, or a loitering/trespassing call there is almost no use in responding because sure as anything they have a scanner on and know they need to get out of the area. Sucks for police, and the hobby as a whole, but i did it too when trying to avoid speed traps and what not. It wasn't like i was using mine to avoid being caught for a burglary.

The county i work for has between 3 and 4 dispatchers on at a given time. They dispatch for over 900 square miles of county, both fire and ems, as well as the sheriffs department and several of the smaller municipalities. They also handle all 911 traffic for the county. You want to talk about a tough job, they definetely don't get the gratitude they deserve. I'd love to see some of the negative people on this thread try and answer multiple phone lines and about 8 radio frequencies. You want to talk about multi-tasking, its unreal.

 

[kc2iyh]

I was just wondering if for example your local PD is looking for a possible drunken driver and they gave the plate over the radio and you happened to be driving in the area and heard it on your scanner and you're behind the car they're looking for , should you call 911 and tell them you heard it on your scanner and have located the vehicle they're looking for? How does a Police Dept. react about ppl that have scanners and want to be helpful? Any experience, tips, or comments. Also is it better to stay annonimous and keep driving after they stop it or could you pull over and let the cops know it was you that called it in. I just don't want to get in trouble if I ever want to help.

I was driving down the road heding to work on the night shift and I saw a DUI. I had no cell phone at the time and I turned on my ham radio and it locked on the PD just as they were dispatching a unit for the very car I was behnd. When I heard they had the direction of travel wrong, I tuned to the local ham radio repeater and contacted someone to call the police and we relayed turn by turn information that allowed them to make the stop. This was in Baytown, TX. Another similar incident in Houston TX didn't yeild such good results. The dispatcher was not listening to the ham I was relaying info too and the DUI finally realized I was following him and reporting him and he lit out like a spotted ape. I saw a unit and flagged them down and he stated that dispatch gave him the wrong direction of travel. The DUI got away.

 

[kc2iyh]

That may or may not have to do with a pretty fair percentage of RR members being LEO, former LEO, EMS, FIRE, members of emergency management, or a plethora of other volunteer agencies which aide the general public including the above listed professions.

I checked that site out and they were not nearly as informative of the whole scanner, radio hobby as RR. They had no frequencies, at least not easily located. They had a lot of posers and their one rant was a situation where the cop was a bully and he didn't get called out on it soon enough. RR users tend to wait for more detailed and accurate info before passing judgement. I have seen examples where other LEO's have called out excessive force or other professional improprieties by other LEO's. We just tend to wait for more information knowing the earliest info is usually not the most reliable.
They, like a lot of "copwatch" people assume to police is wrong in most, if not all situations. I used to work as a Private Security Officer and worked with several cops who were excellent and preofessional and couple who were unprofessional and lazy. One of whom witnessed a drug sale and ignored it, much to my shock and dismay.
I now work as a Surgical Tech/Assistant and am on the Trauma/Code Team and interact with EMS/FD and sometimes the Police. Most here are proffesional and friendly. I usually here more warnings than tickets being given out as the police here will gve the status of every traffic stop and every other call for that matter out at the conclusion of the incident.

 

[PHOENIX_SCANNER]

My Story

About 15 years ago I was driving down a main road with the trusty 2006 running in my car. An armed robbery call came out, and the description came out for the suspect and vehicle. As it turns out the bad guy ended up right in front of me on the road. As I crossed a road I saw a cop sitting in the turn lane and stopped beside him. I told him that the guy who just robbed the circle k store was right there (pointing to the car), then I drove on. He pulled a u turn, and after another officer caught up to him, they did the felony stop as I watched from a considerable distance (far enough that they didn't even know I was there - a few hundred yards). It was pretty exciting of course, and I felt I did the right thing.

How in good conscience could anyone have just let the guy drive away and do nothing? Normal people didn't have cellphones then, and even if I had one, the delay would have probably let the guy slip away, at least for the time being.

I have also (by sheer chance) ended up in the middle of a rolling surveillance before, with the target vehicle in front of me, the good guys around and behind me, and a surveillance fixed wing circling above, cool stuff! Of course, I did nothing, and went about my way and let the guys do their job. That was about a month ago.

At any rate, great question. I believe that scanner listeners can be of help to law enforcement, but should never put themselves at risk, or interfere in any way. +1 on AZ Scanner's comment about not calling and talking in code to the dispatcher, man that is stupid! I am embarrassed for anyone who does this.

I DO NOT agree with the "keep your mouth shut" philosophy, in cases like this. It is your town too, so take the time to help (in the right way).

All of this brings up a question as well. What is the MAIN reason for MOST departments keeping most things in the clear? I can think of a few reasons, but don't know which one most influences the decision.

1) The media puts great pressure on them to keep most things in the clear.
2) The citizens of a community feel better when they feel their local PD isn't "hiding things" (open society - no "secret police")
3) Keeping things in the clear allows many more eyes and ears to be out there hopefully helping them out sometimes.

I heard that PPD was originally going to go all encrypted when they made their recent switch to P25 trunking, but that our local media threw a fit about it, and that in our case this was the driving factor.

 

[mjthomas59]

All of this brings up a question as well. What is the MAIN reason for MOST departments keeping most things in the clear? I can think of a few reasons, but don't know which one most influences the decision.

1) The media puts great pressure on them to keep most things in the clear.
2) The citizens of a community feel better when they feel their local PD isn't "hiding things" (open society - no "secret police")
3) Keeping things in the clear allows many more eyes and ears to be out there hopefully helping them out sometimes.

I heard that PPD was originally going to go all encrypted when they made their recent switch to P25 trunking, but that our local media threw a fit about it, and that in our case this was the driving factor.

Although you have some "reasonable" answers on your list, I don't see them having anything to do with why things are/aren't encrypted. The real reasons are this:

#1 The cost; until recently it was an ungodly amount of money to get encrypted equipment for all officers and dispatch centers in a given area. Now it isn't so much the cost of clear vs. encrypted, but the cost of updating 40+year old radio systems that prevents it from becoming main stream. The mantra "if it isn't broke don't fix it" seems to rule the way for most agencies. Until the FCC or DHS requires everyone to upgrade to digital, or encrypted, or 700/800mhz, or anything else, then you will always see agencies doing the same thing they have always done.

#2 Interoperability. As a member of a county department, I "need" to have communication with all the municipalities in the event I get into a car-chase, searching for a suspect, missing child, whatever. By one agency being encrypted and the others being in the clear, that makes interop non-existent. It isn't "all the scanner listeners" out there that keep things from going encrypted, its the fact that most officers utilize "scan" on their radios and are aware of what is going on around their area, even if it isn't within their normal jurisdiction. I like to know when a muni-cop gets into a foot-chase, or if there is a large fight going on that i'm close to but is inside city limits and thus not "technically" my area. That doesn't mean I don't help, but by the time an officer gets on scene, says he needs help, his dispatcher contacts my dispatcher, and I finally get the call, you are talking about minutes instead of seconds.

 

[K4DHR]

Probably 9-10 years ago, my cousin and I were pulling out of a gas station, listening to the local trunk system, when we hear a BOLO go out for someone who took someone's wallet at gunpoint. It so happened the gas station we pulled out of was about a mile down the road from where this happened. I get the details on the vehicle the perp was supposed to be in, look up, and lo and behold, the minivan is about two cars in front of us. I call 911 on my cell phone and they ask us to hang back a bit, but keep the guy in sight as long and as safely as possible while they coordinate enough cops to get the guy pulled over. So we follow him about 3-4 miles (its on a 4 lane rd, not likely to rouse much suspicion), pass by this one street, and all of a sudden 2-3 patrol cars come out of that street and 2-3 more come blazing past us. They get the guy surrounded and out of the car and into cuffs rather quickly.

We were asked to pull off to the side in case the officers needed to ask anything, one of them came back and asked us why we were listening to the police, etc., as they claimed they had found some scanners in vehicles in some recent property crimes. We just explained it was a hobby which they were okay with, thanked us for the help, took down our information in case they needed us in court and let us go.

 

[lugoffman]

I just got a email and the message was from mciupa3 does anyone know what this is all about cause it lookes like there thread was deleted

 

[jon_k]

I just got a email and the message was from mciupa3 does anyone know what this is all about cause it lookes like there thread was deleted

Something about a greyhound bus. Was sent to about 10 threads. Probably banned and posts deleted. Some sort of spam.

 

[rcvmo]

Many moons ago, while in transition between working for 2 cities, around Thx Giving we had a rash of BNE's on homes where people had left for the hoiliday. At 1:00am trhat mornjing getting ready for the drive to work, I heard the commotion on our local PD channel about the perps fleeing and eluding LEOs. As ot ready to walk to my vehicle, I heard the sound of someone else's car door slam on the other street behind me. Then I heard the suspect walking down the street toward a big forest. Figuring once he gets into that area it would take days even with the best K9 and FLIR to find this guy. I called the PD and told them I heard the scanner comms and heard a subject exit a vehicle behind my house on the main street. I got a stern lecture about the scanner, but heard the cavalry a comin'. Unfortunatley, the perp was way ahead of them and bolted into the forest. I got a thank you from several LEOS and an appology from the dispatcher who grilled me about the scanner. Not sure if they ever foun the suspect.
rcvmo

 

[RayAir]

Excellent points. Not only about the number of people listening to scanners, but the sad realities of dispatching. I've noticed a pretty ridiculous trend in the number of younger people "taking advantage" of the hobby and using scanners to get away with crime. Whether it be major crime or not, if i get a suspicious vehicle call, or a loitering/trespassing call there is almost no use in responding because sure as anything they have a scanner on and know they need to get out of the area. Sucks for police, and the hobby as a whole, but i did it too when trying to avoid speed traps and what not. It wasn't like i was using mine to avoid being caught for a burglary.

The county i work for has between 3 and 4 dispatchers on at a given time. They dispatch for over 900 square miles of county, both fire and ems, as well as the sheriffs department and several of the smaller municipalities. They also handle all 911 traffic for the county. You want to talk about a tough job, they definetely don't get the gratitude they deserve. I'd love to see some of the negative people on this thread try and answer multiple phone lines and about 8 radio frequencies. You want to talk about multi-tasking, its unreal.

That's what MDT's are for. Every modern cop car has one.