Have you ever helped Law Enforcement or others by what you hear on your Scanner?

[linkinpark9812]

Has anyone been able to help LEO's or others by what they hear on the scanner?

Out of the year and a half that I had one, me and a friend were able to twice, while driving.

Once was finding a drunk pedestrian (the LEOs went to the wrong location, misinterpret the dispatcher), but we just helped find his exact location, the police probably would have found him a few minutes later if we weren't there, so this one I almost don't consider helping the Police (or the drunk man!). The next one I do.

And another was finding a hit and run suspect. Apparently the Police didn't want to follow the oil trail leading away from the scene (we later found out that the LEO DID see it, just didn't want to follow it), so when we picked up on it, it lead around the block to someones driveway. So we went back to the police on scene, told them and they confronted them. The Owner of the car that was hit thanked us. So that was pretty cool. I guess we helped the owner of the car more than the Police, but obviously the Police have to deal with the people that took off, we just informed them. Just happened to be driving somewhere and were probably only 1/4 mile away from the scene when the call came through.

I really don't consider that "playing police", though some might. What I would consider playing police, is that if WE confronted the hit-n-run people or something like that. I don't think we did anything that "only the police should do". We were just Well informed and being good Samaritans IMHO.

Anyone else?

 

[burner50]

Last saturday we were hit with blizzard like conditions, freezing rain, and other nasty winter weather that people pretend is just like dry pavement...


I was driving down the interstate and heard a call about a car in the ditch on its side taking in standing water... It was only about 2 miles from me and all of the troopers were already busy with other accidents.

I stopped and let the guy sit in my car until state patrol arrived... Story COunty and Hamilton county couldnt decide which side of the county line it was on so neither sent a deputy. :roll:

 

[RolnCode3]

This exact question has been discussed before. There's a thread floating around somewhere.

 

[linkinpark9812]

Last saturday we were hit with blizzard like conditions, freezing rain, and other nasty winter weather that people pretend is just like dry pavement...


I was driving down the interstate and heard a call about a car in the ditch on its side taking in standing water... It was only about 2 miles from me and all of the troopers were already busy with other accidents.

I stopped and let the guy sit in my car until state patrol arrived... Story COunty and Hamilton county couldnt decide which side of the county line it was on so neither sent a deputy. :roll:

Good for you!

Ya we have had where there is a crash at an intersection at the edge of the towns Munster and Dyer.

Munster got the call, LEO told dispatch to switch it to Dyer, Then when Dyer goes to dispatch a unit, their unit says "switch it to Munster". I laugh when Dyer dispatcher says "actually, the call came from Munster" so the Dyer officer ends up going.
Too bad no one sent an officer to where you were at, that is bad that they have to argue on who goes, even though they are busy.

This exact question has been discussed before. There's a thread floating around somewhere.

I figured. But I didn't want to dig up an old thread. Sometimes you just got to start new!

 

[kb2vxa]

I used to call in accidents and hazardous conditions on the 2M repeater autopatch but that's the only cooperation I ever got from law enforcement. To give the last instance as an example, they were looking for a suspect in the wrong area. I spotted him and called it in directly but was met by a wall of abuse from the dispatcher who never notified the patrols and the perp got away clean. Forget it pal, never again will I put up with their crap. Even as a potential witness I pull a Sergeant Schultz on them, I know nothing... NOOOTHIIING. These days cops have a bad attitude all the way around so rather than be the object of abuse I mind my own business, you're on your own fool, deal with it!

 

[Matt93]

I have yes. There was a suspicious guy riding his bike around the area I live in. THey could not find and locate him. Turns out he was hiding behind a dumpster in back of a firehouse. I called the police and they came. Boy, did I feel good!

 

[SCPD]

In 1979 I was working for a local security company, running a night patrol. I was driving my personal vehicle as the company vehicle was a piece of crap Ambassador.

Anyway, one summer night I am on patrol, going from one location and heading across town to close up a business and do a security check. On the way across town I heard a call go out on the scanner that an officer found an busted out window on a drug store and was requesting additional units.... right then you could hear a struggle before the radio went dead...

A few seconds later the officer came on screaming I've been hit in the head with a pipe, and gave a description of the suspect and direction of travel. I just happened to be driving on the street it occured and was passed by several cruisers. As I approached the scene I saw the cruisers continue on and the lone officer sitting on the curb, bleeding from his head. I stopped, jumped out the car and grab the first aid kit and stemmed the flow of bleeding. He was pretty shocky but was very grateful I stopped to stay with him. His Sgt arrived on scene and I split.

A few weeks later, I stopped at Kwik Shop to get a cup of coffee and the Sgt was there. He too thanked me for keeping his officer safe, asked my name and who I worked for. I never gave it another thought. A few days later my boss calls me at home and asks me to come out to the office, he had something to discuss with me.

So I get there, having no idea what it is about, and enter the office. There, is the injured officer, the Sgt and the Chief of Police awarding me a medal of accomodation for assisting their officer in a time of need.

We also got a letter direct from the Chief authorizing use of scanners in our vehicles. That letter came in handy a few weeks later when a cop stopped me because he knew I had a scanner in my vehicle. I was wise enough for some reason and made several copies of the authorization and handed one to him. He was deflated. He thought for sure he was going to get an easy bust, only to be outdone by his Chief.

Now, would I stop these days, as former Mil, Security, Corrections and LE? Probably not. It was a dumb thing to do then and it would still be a dumb thing to do today. I had no idea if any other suspects were in the area, and I put myself in danger, as well as the injured officer.

 

[Raven95150]

One time I heard a drunk driver call that was coming right down the road I was on, and the person who called was no longer following the vehicle. I then saw the vehicle go by so I called it in and followed it. I followed it for a few miles but they didn't have any clear officers to come get the vehicle stopped. The lady was so drunk that she was going in people's yards and down the wrong side of the road, how she hadn't already hit someone or something I don't know. Eventually they got a couple off duty officers to come out form a nearby training excercise. The first officer was in an unmarked Dodge Stratus (might have even been his POV) and plain clothes and had his kid in the car, and the second was in a marked Sheriff's Dept squad but he was dressed in full camouflage. They followed for about a mile with their lights and sirens on before the lady finally pulled over. She had an open liter of vodka and her license had already been revoked for drunk drivng. One of the officers came back to talk to me and before getting any information from me, the first thing he asked was if I had a screwdriver so he could take the license plates off of the car.

I've also helped out with first aid at several car accidents. (I am trained as a first responder) One time I ended up performing CPR on a guy that had crashed his motorcycle. Unfortunately he didn't make it.

 

[Lt51506]

I used to call in accidents and hazardous conditions on the 2M repeater autopatch but that's the only cooperation I ever got from law enforcement. To give the last instance as an example, they were looking for a suspect in the wrong area. I spotted him and called it in directly but was met by a wall of abuse from the dispatcher who never notified the patrols and the perp got away clean. Forget it pal, never again will I put up with their crap. Even as a potential witness I pull a Sergeant Schultz on them, I know nothing... NOOOTHIIING. These days cops have a bad attitude all the way around so rather than be the object of abuse I mind my own business, you're on your own fool, deal with it!

I got the exact same reception in Western Iowa. After being lambasted by 911 dispatchers and the ham club, I just quit. Haven't picked up the 2M in years and will let my license expire when it comes due because of it. I've got no interest in being a part of that.

 

[Zaratsu]

Nope.


I think that for this question. Going out of your way, is getting IN the way.

If I were to call something in because of something I heard on the scanner, it would have to be something where the situation was dangerous to myself. I've had the police on a manhunt in my neighborhood twice now. The perp was just a guy off his meds away from a halfway house. Locked my doors and kept an eye out on all the action. The cops couldn't find him for hours, but If I could ID him from the house (highly unlikely) I probably would give them the tip. But noone was going to get hurt, so I would not have been calling in any tips that were not 100% or the cops were WAYyyyyy off on the search.



If it was something violent, again, I would secure myself or get out of the area first. I don't want to mistakenly ID someone else, call in the tip, and have police resources taken away from a search to just slam the wrong guy on the ground.

The cops are pretty good about finding the trouble in town, much more than I could, so I stay out. I guess it is possible to imagine some whacked-out scenario where you save the day by being a scanner fan, but I doubt that happens much. I guess you would KNOW when it is appropriate. Use best judgement.

 

[joehawth]

yea, one night i was driving around the next town over with 2 of my buddies and we had the scanner on that town's PD. We were stopped at a Cumby's for slushies and heard the call go out, suspect on foot, officer needs assistance. We were about 1/8 of a mile away, so we jumped in and beat all the other cops there, we saw the one cop car, empty with the door wide open, no sign of anyone. I saw 5 or 6 cops coming up behind me with their lights on, so i figured i was nolonger of any use, so i started to leave. On my way through a narrow road getting out of there, a cruiser doing a sweep stopped me "What are you doing on WARD Street right now?!?!?", this place was in a real dumpy industrial area of town at 2 in the morning, so it was a very legitamate, wtf are you doing here kind of question. I was afraid of getting in trouble so i had shut off the scanner and did not want to mention it. So i replied "just cruising officer" and that bewildered him. It also didnt help that he was looking for a burgler (sp?) and i had a bunch of hand tools on the back seat because we just finished installing a PA on my car
so the officer proceeds to call in my plates and description of the tools. then he took our names and thats when my buddy was like we're really just wasting his time, let's just tell him about the scanner. At the same time we were explaining what we were doing there, the officer realized my friend in my back seat was actually a detective for that town's PD, and he laughed and let us go.
We weren't much of a help that night, but it was exciting and makes for a decent story,
I have a few more stories, and yes i have actually been useful, ill post those soon

 

[screenersam]

I hope we won't let a few sour dispatchers prevent us from assisting as needed. obviously it's a judgment call when we're helping or interfering, but often another pair of eyes is a big help.
I did get involved, sorta, at the airport I work; they were having power issues in the area. the Power Company was trying to reach the Airport people and the Airport folks couldn't reach the Power co; I had them both on my scanner and let one of the maintce guys listen in. "Hey, I know that guy" he said, and called him on his cell phone and they hooked up.

 

[KI6ABZ]

a little fire action...

Back when I was 18 or 19 (before the age of handheld cell phones), I overheard two guys talking on CB channel 9 about a campfire that someone had left burning. Neither one could figure out how to reach the fire dept, so I called the non-emergency line and told the dispatcher what I overheard.

Then I turned on the CB, tuned to channel 9, and tried to break in to the conversation. The two guys kept telling me to stay off the channel "This is important," they would say.

About 5 minutes later, one of the guys said "Hang on, a fire truck is here," and the conversation paused for a minute.

I took advantage of the break to let both guys know that they need to use their ears, not just their mouth, when talking on the radio.

This is actually common: guys will get on a repeater and chat over real emergency traffic. I heard a story about a guy trying to get on a local repeater in Louisiana during hurricane Katrina. Two guys were chatting away, busily ignoring the local Ham trying to coordinate relief efforts.

 

[Skypilot007]

I used to call in accidents and hazardous conditions on the 2M repeater autopatch but that's the only cooperation I ever got from law enforcement. To give the last instance as an example, they were looking for a suspect in the wrong area. I spotted him and called it in directly but was met by a wall of abuse from the dispatcher who never notified the patrols and the perp got away clean. Forget it pal, never again will I put up with their crap. Even as a potential witness I pull a Sergeant Schultz on them, I know nothing... NOOOTHIIING. These days cops have a bad attitude all the way around so rather than be the object of abuse I mind my own business, you're on your own fool, deal with it!

I couldn't agree more with that statement.

 

[linkinpark9812]

I couldn't agree more with that statement.

I guess it depends on the area. Around here the cops are pretty local and small time (In the Town of Munster, there is ~22,000 pop. and only ~22 sworn officers). I have talked to a few and they know I have a scanner, they really don't care and they are pretty cool as long as you are on their good side (obviously). The dispatchers seem alright too. I have had to call 911 (and non-emergency) a couple of times, and they listen to you. They don't seem to give you crap.

 

[KI6ABZ]

I guess it depends on the area. Around here the cops are pretty local and small time (In the Town of Munster, there is ~22,000 pop. and only ~22 sworn officers). I have talked to a few and they know I have a scanner, they really don't care and they are pretty cool as long as you are on their good side (obviously). The dispatchers seem alright too. I have had to call 911 (and non-emergency) a couple of times, and they listen to you. They don't seem to give you crap.

I know both cops and dispatchers that are full of themselves, and I know some that aren't. I can show you people in any profession who are full of themselves, and they're generally the ones with least reason to be arrogant.

But that's no different than any other profession. I guess it's just human nature.

Don't let a jerk ruin your day; doing the right thing is still the right thing, even if some people don't appreciate it.

That doesn't mean we should chase down dangerous criminals, but wouldn't the country be a safer place if people were a little more involved in what's going on around them?

 

[newsphotog]

I used to call in accidents and hazardous conditions on the 2M repeater autopatch but that's the only cooperation I ever got from law enforcement. To give the last instance as an example, they were looking for a suspect in the wrong area. I spotted him and called it in directly but was met by a wall of abuse from the dispatcher who never notified the patrols and the perp got away clean. Forget it pal, never again will I put up with their crap. Even as a potential witness I pull a Sergeant Schultz on them, I know nothing... NOOOTHIIING. These days cops have a bad attitude all the way around so rather than be the object of abuse I mind my own business, you're on your own fool, deal with it!

I don't call the police for much, but a couple of times I have had to call in some real dangerous drivers. One time I called in a reckless driver, gave them the plate number and vehicle description and the location, and then the dispatcher stops me in the middle of a sentence and says "ARE YOU FOLLOWING THIS CAR? DON'T FOLLOW THAT CAR. WE DON'T WANT YOU TO TAKE ANY RISKS." She said it in a really rude and less nice way. This really irked me because I really am not the kind of person to get in the middle of a "situation" or be a vigilante. I was simply on my way home and I was just calling it in, letting her know where the car is at. What she said may not seem to be insulting when it's written down, but it was very insulting, her assuming that I'm some crazy asshat yahoo who likes to put more people in danger.

Needless to say, I haven't called in anything since.

 

[newsphotog]

This is actually common: guys will get on a repeater and chat over real emergency traffic. I heard a story about a guy trying to get on a local repeater in Louisiana during hurricane Katrina. Two guys were chatting away, busily ignoring the local Ham trying to coordinate relief efforts.

Ham Radio and Ike at Hamsexy dot com

Not Katrina, but Ike and a similar situation.

One day when it snowed I was listening to a local two-meter repeater when a ham that was ragchewing on his mobile and then the car ahead of him went off the road and rolled over onto its top in the ditch. The other ham at home got all the necessary information and called rescue. Everybody stayed clear on the repeater until rescue arrived.

 

[vabiro]

Hi,

It's an interesting coincidence that this thread would appear today: This story was on the Toronto News about exactly this sort of thing happening.

In my own case, many years ago, my friend and I had an opportunity to help out a Police Constable (PC) that was trying to stop a vehicle, but wasn't having any luck.

We had just filled up the car at a gas station and were listening to the local police frequency when we heard a single PC car trying to pull over a car that was refusing to stop. She was doing the lights, siren and air horn thing and the guy just kept on driving. I guess you could call it a "Low Speed Chase".

The dispatcher was having a hard time finding more than a single additional unit to come to the PCs assistance, and they were worried that they wouldn't be able to stop the vehicle if they couldn't box them in.

By this point they were about 1/4 mile from where we were, driving right towards us. We could see one car on the driver's side, and the other behind. They were traveling along at a leisurely 40 or 50 kph and about to pass us.

What we did was pull onto the road in front of the vehicle, matching the speed of the vehicle. Then we just slowed down until the four of us were stopped.

The police were actually very thankful. They took our names and I received a letter of thanks from the department.

Would I do this now; In an environment where gun crime has gone up through the roof? No

Victor

 

[bassjunkie]

Hi,

It's an interesting coincidence that this thread would appear today: This story was on the Toronto News about exactly this sort of thing happening.

In my own case, many years ago, my friend and I had an opportunity to help out a Police Constable (PC) that was trying to stop a vehicle, but wasn't having any luck.

We had just filled up the car at a gas station and were listening to the local police frequency when we heard a single PC car trying to pull over a car that was refusing to stop. She was doing the lights, siren and air horn thing and the guy just kept on driving. I guess you could call it a "Low Speed Chase".

The dispatcher was having a hard time finding more than a single additional unit to come to the PCs assistance, and they were worried that they wouldn't be able to stop the vehicle if they couldn't box them in.

By this point they were about 1/4 mile from where we were, driving right towards us. We could see one car on the driver's side, and the other behind. They were traveling along at a leisurely 40 or 50 kph and about to pass us.

What we did was pull onto the road in front of the vehicle, matching the speed of the vehicle. Then we just slowed down until the four of us were stopped.

The police were actually very thankful. They took our names and I received a letter of thanks from the department.

Would I do this now; In an environment where gun crime has gone up through the roof? No

Victor

I'd be less worried about getting shot and more worried about getting booked for dangerous driving here in Australia.