Ah yes, one of the perennial hot-button scanning topics. Guaranteed to bring out two "camps,"
- the "anyone can find them if they try hard enough" / "if it's that secret the police should encrypt it" people who feel the urge to publish everything they know
- and those who feel as you do, HBdigital1
And nobody ever changes anyone's mind about it no matter how long the threads run.
HBdigital1 said:
...confidentiality in those siutations would be of the utmost importance.
I happen to agree with that. Many surveillances involve very high-risk people. Both the suspects and the officers attempting to surveil them are often very much "on edge," knowing of the potential for danger. While infrequent, there have been a couple high-profile incidents of people, presumably with scanners, driving right into a situation and screwing it up.
A kidnap/hostage situation in Long Beach some years ago is an example, where several people with antennas sprouting from their cars paraded through the parking lot where the ransom & release were supposed to take place. It fell through, and the victim was later found dead.
Did scanner listeners contribute to that outcome? It was never proven, but generally believed to have possibly been the case. A pretty high price. My opinion is that these frequencies needn't be publicised more than they already are.
Even otherwise responsible scanner listeners can find it almost TOO tempting to "just kinda cruise by
once" when they hear an interesting stake-out or moving surveillance right in their own neighborhood. Almost as many as those who will "accidentally" drive past a fire or other incident they overhear. I'll admit that I've BTDT, but not in a very long time.
As far as the "dumb" criminals, that's probably the case a lot of the time, otherwise they'd be in another line of work. Some LEAs, though, have very well-trained and experienced surveillance specialists, with very creative procedures and equipment, and vehicles that nobody in a thousand years would "make" as a cop car. Or truck. Or taxi. Or motorcycle. Even sharp-eyed and paranoid crooks are totally surprised when they suddenly find guns and badges in their face.