As a long-time subscriber, I would like to express my concern over the decision to take down the City of Pittsburgh Police/Fire /EMS feed on March 8, during the active shooter incident at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic.
The reason given for the takedown was the "feeding of dedicated tactical channels". The channel assigned by command for SWAT ops was Pittsburgh Channel 7, designated (at least in the RR Database) as follows:
453.45000 WNKK745 RM 186.2 PL Pgh PD 7 Cmd Police Command Post, Special Events, Tactical FM Law Talk
In the latest clarification message regarding law enforcement feeds, dated 1/29/11, blantonl states clearly:
"If a routine dispatch or special events channel or talkgroup happens to have communications such as tactical, tac, car-to-car, NCIC, records, detectives, swat, SRT, and supervisors then that is OK and is not subject to our terms of service."
As such, the feed provider cannot be blamed for the decision by command to put SWAT ops on a clear, repeated channel that is commonly monitored by the general public and media. While I fully understand the concerns of admin re the type of traffic that was being aired, and the right of RR to terminate any feed that they feel they should, I feel that the decision to terminate this feed was excessive in light of the aforementioned circumstances.
In the interest of consistency of customer service, I hope that admin exercises more discretion before arbitrarily removing a feed streaming critical information that is in the public interest. Considering that those in charge of managing the incident clearly had to know that tactical comms were being monitored by the general public, the end achieved by this takedown does not justify the means used to achieve it.
Thanks for your time and consideration.
John Linko N3RTS
johnlinko@bresnan.net
John Linko
The reason given for the takedown was the "feeding of dedicated tactical channels". The channel assigned by command for SWAT ops was Pittsburgh Channel 7, designated (at least in the RR Database) as follows:
453.45000 WNKK745 RM 186.2 PL Pgh PD 7 Cmd Police Command Post, Special Events, Tactical FM Law Talk
In the latest clarification message regarding law enforcement feeds, dated 1/29/11, blantonl states clearly:
"If a routine dispatch or special events channel or talkgroup happens to have communications such as tactical, tac, car-to-car, NCIC, records, detectives, swat, SRT, and supervisors then that is OK and is not subject to our terms of service."
As such, the feed provider cannot be blamed for the decision by command to put SWAT ops on a clear, repeated channel that is commonly monitored by the general public and media. While I fully understand the concerns of admin re the type of traffic that was being aired, and the right of RR to terminate any feed that they feel they should, I feel that the decision to terminate this feed was excessive in light of the aforementioned circumstances.
In the interest of consistency of customer service, I hope that admin exercises more discretion before arbitrarily removing a feed streaming critical information that is in the public interest. Considering that those in charge of managing the incident clearly had to know that tactical comms were being monitored by the general public, the end achieved by this takedown does not justify the means used to achieve it.
Thanks for your time and consideration.
John Linko N3RTS
johnlinko@bresnan.net
John Linko