Occupy LA Frequencies?

[scottbailey]

Anyone know which channels are being used by LAPD/LASO/etc. for the Occupy LA eviction tonight?

 

[scottbailey]

Found them on LAPD 36 and 37 Central Tac 1 & Tac 2.

 

[landonjensen]

Los Angeles County Working Incident Live Scanner Audio Feed

 

[brandon]

Reading Twitter it sounds like the Occupy LA protestors are monitoring LAPD comms as well

 

[tomasG]

I have been listening on Scannerbuff all night and the build-up towards midnight. The comms are excellent and include sporadic HT simplex traffic. I'm not sure where that feed is but I hear its up in the mountains with beam antennas.

Interestingly, and this is probably related to the Twitter reports, only staff level commanders and limited other supervisors are using the repeat mode. All other traffic is simplex in squad formation. I'm listening on my Android and its crystal clear. Channel 36 Tac 1 is on Mount Lukens and Tac 2 is Elysian Park. I guess mere scanners aren't likely to hear the squad level traffic too well, but surely they can hear Commander 3 barking out exact orders.

I wonder if they are using trickery and Commander 3 traffic is a ruse and real traffic elsewhere on secret channels. As I see it the OWS has had Egypt, Libya, Iran and other places to learn how to use Twitter. But if LAPD is pulling a fast one... I am sure that OWS has someone at a high vantage point with a laptop and a scanner that hears everything. So LAPD - where are you hiding?

Radio traffic indicates that at 0600 all off duty personnel and detectives will be in riot controol uniform and be deployed. Tonights scirmish is just a warm up

 

[mark5388916]

That feed now has traffic regarding at least 2 Mobile Field Force units assembling.

Mark

 

[Radio_Lady]

Interestingly, and this is probably related to the Twitter reports, only staff level commanders and limited other supervisors are using the repeat mode. All other traffic is simplex in squad formation. I'm listening on my Android and its crystal clear. Channel 36 Tac 1 is on Mount Lukens and Tac 2 is Elysian Park. I guess mere scanners aren't likely to hear the squad level traffic too well, but surely they can hear Commander 3 barking out exact orders.

The two Central tac frequencies almost always use the Elysian repeater which is literally line of sight and less than a mile and a half from City Hall. At night you can see the middle and top tower lights from street level outside Parker Center, the Metro Dispatch Center and probably the new police headquarters. Lukens is a back-up site and seldom used for transmitting or repeating anything. The CP, staging areas, Central station and everything else are all well under a mile radius from City Hall, so simplex should be entirely adequate for intra-squad communications that can't be done face-to-face.

I wonder if they are using trickery and Commander 3 traffic is a ruse and real traffic elsewhere on secret channels ··· But if LAPD is pulling a fast one... I am sure that OWS has someone at a high vantage point with a laptop and a scanner that hears everything. So LAPD - where are you hiding?

LAPD has one or two staff and command frequencies that are well-publicized, but from the incidents I have worked, it's much more likely the command officers are just using cellphones for lengthy conversations and the incident frequencies for minute-by-minute talk. It's not like they're running D-Day or World War III, just a potentially large number of misdemeanor arrests, when they eventually get around to it.

I really doubt that they would bother with ruses and secret-squirrel frequencies for this. Commander Andy Smith was my boss at Communications Division for several very good years when he was a Captain, and he's definitely not the type of guy to fool around with things like that. (Off-topic prediction: Smith will be a real strong contender for Chief when and if he ever decides he wants that job. You read it here first :roll: )

 

[karldotcom]

From today's pictures of the tents, it appears a lot of the long-term folks have left. I listened a little last night and it just seemed to be protestors and PD running around in circles.

Maybe they are waiting for a definitive court ruling before booting them. I would cite the tent people daily until they just went away in the meantime.

 

[brandon]

I understand many of the tents are not even occupied. In London and New York the police used thermal imaging and found most of the tents were vacant at night.

 

[Code20Photog]

I had the "pleasure" of covering the "eviction" for work the other night. We basically listened to Tac 2 the whole night, and worked for what we needed.

It was cool to hear Chief Beck on the radio.

And for those who haven't had the wonderful experience of OWS LA, and that aromic smell, I just don't see the campers as the type that could afford, or even figure out, a digital capable scanner.

 

[tomasG]

What I heard was mostly one-way traffic from Comander 3 and the sound truck or Air 8. This is what caused me to believe that they may be putting out select information on the repeater but were simplex otherwise. I can understand using cell phones but it doesn't add up. Why call the squad leader over the repeater and not hear a reply? The squad leader was on simplex and out of range of the remote receiver. Probably also out of reach of a scanner head with a rubber ducky. There was two-way commincation ocurring.

The mayor expects definitive action to occur before Dec. 4th when he leaves town.

The two Central tac frequencies almost always use the Elysian repeater which is literally line of sight and less than a mile and a half from City Hall. At night you can see the middle and top tower lights from street level outside Parker Center, the Metro Dispatch Center and probably the new police headquarters. Lukens is a back-up site and seldom used for transmitting or repeating anything. The CP, staging areas, Central station and everything else are all well under a mile radius from City Hall, so simplex should be entirely adequate for intra-squad communications that can't be done face-to-face.


LAPD has one or two staff and command frequencies that are well-publicized, but from the incidents I have worked, it's much more likely the command officers are just using cellphones for lengthy conversations and the incident frequencies for minute-by-minute talk. It's not like they're running D-Day or World War III, just a potentially large number of misdemeanor arrests, when they eventually get around to it.

I really doubt that they would bother with ruses and secret-squirrel frequencies for this. Commander Andy Smith was my boss at Communications Division for several very good years when he was a Captain, and he's definitely not the type of guy to fool around with things like that. (Off-topic prediction: Smith will be a real strong contender for Chief when and if he ever decides he wants that job. You read it here first :roll: )

 

[1150RT-P]

Reading Twitter it sounds like the Occupy LA protestors are monitoring LAPD comms as well

an unfortunate side effect of internet/posting feeds online. not judging feed providers by any means, but i highly doubt OLA "protesters" are using actual scanners - most likely online. who knows, i could be wrong, wouldnt be the first time.

 

[Code20Photog]

Was out there last night again (If you saw the KCAL 9 footage of the officers streaming out of City Hall and the number of arrests up there, that was me behind the camera.)

Again, they were on Ch 37 Central Tac 2 the whole night and I was listening to the whole thing loud and clear. They did a pretty good job at keeping their movements vague, even we didn't know where they were coming. We heard the containment lines being set up and them talking about preparing to deploy, but no specifics.

I also doubt, that even with the online feeds, there was really that much info being tipped to the protestors. The online feeds I've seen are pretty much just station channels, and not tacs and Metro channels.

 

[Radio_Lady]

On Tuesday afternoon

I had the "pleasure" of covering the "eviction" for work the other night. We basically listened to Tac 2 the whole night, and worked for what we needed.

It was cool to hear Chief Beck on the radio.

It's interesting how things change over time. It used to be that we were never to use officers' names over the air, but that very gradually changed, though it's still not common in everyday radio traffic. I didn't hear Beck; were they or he using his name or his "Staff 1" designation? Both nights the staff people were being ID'd by name more often than not, while lower command-level people mostly used their permanent or incident-assigned IDs.

And then on Wednesday

Was out there last night again

Again, they were on Ch 37 Central Tac 2 the whole night and I was listening to the whole thing loud and clear... The online feeds I've seen are pretty much just station channels, and not tacs and Metro channels.

The feed I tuned in to for a while, RadioReference's "Los Angeles County Working Incident" which is only brought online for significant events, was streaming Central Tac 2 and Citywide 1, and was intermittently pretty busy. From where I live way out west, OCB 1 and 2 don't come in very well, though the Citywides all have good signals.

 

[Code20Photog]

I didn't hear Beck; were they or he using his name or his "Staff 1" designation? Both nights the staff people were being ID'd by name more often than not, while lower command-level people mostly used their permanent or incident-assigned ID.

We didn't hear him on Tuesday. Sunday night, he was just on the radio as "ICP" or "Command Post", we just recognized his voice.

 

[tomasG]

I think your experience is proof positive thatn they were using simplex and the Commander was on repeat. You were right there and could hear both sides. Remote feeds couldn't hear the simplex. I was listening and found the Scannerbuff feed to be the best with an occasional simplex conversation but nowhere else. I know antennas and when I wrote to hoim he mentioned twin phased yagis pinted right at city hall. There's a fee in East L.A. and it wasn't hearing much either. Now that cold weather is here maybe we can clean up 30 tons of garbage left behind.

Was out there last night again (If you saw the KCAL 9 footage of the officers streaming out of City Hall and the number of arrests up there, that was me behind the camera.)

Again, they were on Ch 37 Central Tac 2 the whole night and I was listening to the whole thing loud and clear. They did a pretty good job at keeping their movements vague, even we didn't know where they were coming. We heard the containment lines being set up and them talking about preparing to deploy, but no specifics.

I also doubt, that even with the online feeds, there was really that much info being tipped to the protestors. The online feeds I've seen are pretty much just station channels, and not tacs and Metro channels.

 

[Radio_Lady]

I think your experience is proof positive thatn they were using simplex and the Commander was on repeat. You were right there and could hear both sides. Remote feeds couldn't hear the simplex.

That situation is as common as not on LAPD's tac frequencies all the time, and I doubt it had anything whatever to do with the event itself. Both sides are listening to the downlink side anyway, so as long as they can hear each other it doesn't make any difference to them whether either or both units are using simplex or duplex.

But quite to the contrary, it is pointless and counter-productive to the concept of having "simplex" when they tie up a frequency across the entire city (and beyond) by using duplex when they're within a few blocks of each other. Still, despite 30 years of training and occasional in-service re-training, many officers usually don't pay attention to whether their radio is set to direct or repeat as long as they can communicate with one another. A case of "If I can push to talk and un-push to hear, it's working."