Question Regarding Frederick Police

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Bjc123

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Hello, I probably should already know this since I spend a lot of time in Frederick. I usually just scan and monitor MCPD and MCFR in MoCo. So I was just curious does the Frederick County Sheriff department have jurisdiction of the county? I don't know how to word this but I am trying to find out what Frederick counties county police are? I don't really know how to ask what I am asking lol so if this doesn't make sense please let me know and I will reword it.

Thanks in Advanced,

Bradley
 

Mr_Boh

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Hello again. I think I know what you are trying to ask. In Montgomery the police has primary law enforcement responsibilities for the bulk of the county and the County Sheriff has duties that mostly center around court operations, family services, jails, etc. - not really your typical 911 immediate calls for service type stuff (although they can certainly perform the same sorts of duties like pulling over someone for speeding).

In Frederick County, the Sheriff is the primary law enforcement agency for the bulk of the county while Frederick City has a police force for the city. In Frederick County also, the State Police are what I would say is "more involved" compared to what the Rockville Barracks do for Montgomery in that, in MoCo you really only see them on 270 and 495. Doesn't mean they couldn't assist county police, but is much less frequent than in Frederick.

So in terms of what you would want to listen to, Frederick Sheriff would be the equivalent of listening to County Police in Montgomery and listening to Frederick City police would be like listening to Rockville or Takoma Park Police (albeit much busier).

I don't monitor Frederick as much so someone might have a better opinion, but that's how I understand it.
 

maus92

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Boh is correct. In the more rural counties, an elected Sheriff has a police function, whereas in more urban counties, a police department has statutory responsibility for police service. The state also authorizes municipalities to establish police departments. The state police functions mainly as a highway patrol in the urban counties, but performs a broader, more generalized police function in more rural counties. The various departments usually have LOAs / SOPs to decide which department has primary responsibility in the various jurisdictions, and some authorities are set forth in the COMARs. You can generally tell who is primary by how the 911 calls are routed. Notably, Baltimore City is an independent jurisdiction, thus is more like a county and has its own elected Sheriff. The state police have limited jurisdiction in the city.

^TL:DR, in Frederick County, the sheriff's department is essentially analogous to the county police force in Montgomery County. In the more populous rural (trending suburban) counties like Frederick, the state police operate more like they do in Montgomery or Baltimore counties, focusing more on traffic enforcement vs. day-to-day policing. In smaller counties like Caroline, Talbot et al, both the state police and the sheriff's department respond to calls for service.

TL:DR**2: In Loudon County, there is a move to create a police department as the county is growing more urban. A study was performed (by the Sheriff) that found that maintaining the sheriff's department as the primary law enforcement agency was the optimal choice.
 

jkahn

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FYI:
Frederick Co Sheriff T/G are mostly in the clear, Frederic City PD are almost entirely encrypted
 

maus92

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Thanks so when listening to the Sheriff, what freq should I listen to? 1, 2, 3 or Countywide?
I'm not too familiar with the dispatch zones / sheriff districts for the FCSO, so I would listen to all tgs until you can figure out which one covers the area you want to monitor. The "Countywide" is likely a shared tac channel for all districts..
 

firephoto184

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Sounds good I will go listen to the broadcastify of each and start to figure this out thanks! :)
You will want to listen to Dispatch 1, it’s the main channel. If a request is made to clear the air for a high priority incident a channel marker is placed on dispatch 1 and units with switch to dispatch 2. When 2 is not being used like that it is for an alternate talk channel to give numbers or other info to communications. Dispatch 3 is typically for special events like the fair. Countywide is used when calls require an alert tone like domestic, assault, and fight in progress which will come over 1, 2, and 3.

Let me know if you have anymore questions!

Some additional info for you as you start to listen:
23xx are Thurmont city units
49xx are Brunswick city units
9xx school units
other 3 digit are regular patrol units and x00-x02 are the supervisors
2 digit car numbers are usually detectives if i remember correctly
 

maus92

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It sounds like the dispatch function for the entire county is handled on the Dispatch 1 tg, while Dispatch 2 and 3 are essentially tac channels. A "channel marker" is a beep or tone that plays at intervals to remind units to restrict their transmissions, sort of like a "10-3" voice announcement that we use here in Annapolis / AACo. Countywide seems to be set up as an "announce" tg. I'm also assuming that Brunswick and Thurmont PD units live on the FCSO Dispatch 1 tg?
 

firephoto184

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It sounds like the dispatch function for the entire county is handled on the Dispatch 1 tg, while Dispatch 2 and 3 are essentially tac channels. A "channel marker" is a beep or tone that plays at intervals to remind units to restrict their transmissions, sort of like a "10-3" voice announcement that we use here in Annapolis / AACo. Countywide seems to be set up as an "announce" tg. I'm also assuming that Brunswick and Thurmont PD units live on the FCSO Dispatch 1 tg?
you are exactly right.
 

4909

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As someone from Frederick dating back to the days of Central Alarm, here are some data bits for you....

MSP in Frederick is "B" Barrack (no s). They work in some of the small towns (Walkersville) as contract police, and also cover parts of the county that the FCSO isn't covering that day. This way the FCSO can stretch thin resources.

FCSO is the 'primary' LEO force in the County. They cover different parts of the county on different days, sharing with MSP.

For Fire, the county still dispatches on the old UHF freq of 154.835, but fireground operations are worked off of TAC 30, & TAC 40.

City has been encrypted for decades so dont' even bother putting them in your scanner.

Hope that helps!
 

maus92

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As someone from Frederick dating back to the days of Central Alarm, here are some data bits for you....

MSP in Frederick is "B" Barrack (no s). They work in some of the small towns (Walkersville) as contract police, and also cover parts of the county that the FCSO isn't covering that day. This way the FCSO can stretch thin resources.

FCSO is the 'primary' LEO force in the County. They cover different parts of the county on different days, sharing with MSP.

For Fire, the county still dispatches on the old UHF freq of 154.835, but fireground operations are worked off of TAC 30, & TAC 40.

City has been encrypted for decades so dont' even bother putting them in your scanner.

Hope that helps!
Yup, still use the VHF for FTO (the rrdb shows 154.845,) and dispatch is also simulcast on 9 Alpha (tg 5440)
 

MdListener

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As someone from Frederick dating back to the days of Central Alarm, here are some data bits for you....

MSP in Frederick is "B" Barrack (no s). They work in some of the small towns (Walkersville) as contract police, and also cover parts of the county that the FCSO isn't covering that day. This way the FCSO can stretch thin resources.

FCSO is the 'primary' LEO force in the County. They cover different parts of the county on different days, sharing with MSP.
. . . . . .
Hope that helps!

Unless it has come back recently, I'm pretty sure the North/South patrol area switching on different days between MSP and FCSO was tried for a while in the 90's, but didn't last more than a year or so. Now, they handle calls based on an MOU that spells out that, for the most part, MSP responds to calls (criminal and traffic) on interstate, U.S. and state roads and FCSO does the same on county roads. This arrangement covers calls that happen on the actual road, or with an address on that road. There are some exceptions, such as calls on the roads around Evergreen Point (MD 85 & 355) having been handled by FCSO for several years now due to manpower issues for MSP.

Also, while MSP has "resident troopers" providing police services in Walkersville, I believe FCSO does the same for some other small towns in Frederick County (Emmitsburg, Myersville, Middletown), while Thurmont and Brunswick have their own P.D.'s. And of course, the City of Frederick has its own P.D.

No offense intended to 4909 and I am happy to be "corrected" if anyone has more accurate info, but I'm pretty sure what I typed above is true. Thanks.
 
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