Richmond police appear to have a talkgroup available for every possible combination of two officers who want to talk. I listened to an extended converation on election night about nothing but politics.
I monitor a lot of unused groups and am seeing nothing new. There are a couple of possibilities. One is that DEC may be starting to realize that some things can be monitored, and admonishing officers to cool some of their chatter. Another is that a lot of street crime activity may be grant-financed, and money getting short at the end of a fiscal year, or following events such as Gaston.
I read a newspaper article years ago saying that during the hunt for the Southside Strangler, detectives purchased some 49 MHz walkie-talkies so that they wouldn't be overheard on police frequencies. The state's current scanner law was passed after Richmond PD tried to track down a scanner-equipped peeping tom.
73/Allen (N4JRI)
