Tempe Fire & Police question

[Mountain343]

I'm back in AZ giving a talk at ASU and just noticed that the KDECK channels aren't active on RWC F Tempe, but I can get them on Chandler.
Is this normal? Is there not a single fire radio affliated with the Tempe cell?

Also looking through the archives, I see the main ambulance out here is PMT... which seems to be owned by Lifeline... which seems to now be owned by AMR.
While I hear them dispatched on A1/K1 as PMT 27X, is there another frequency they use as well? Maybe AMR East?

====

For the Tempe PD does anyone know where the cutoff is for North and South regions?
From listening it it appears to maybe be Baseline, but I'm not sure.

There's a LOT of construction on the streets around here and there are some real janky looking unmarked vehicles with a mish-mash of ebay looking red and blue lights flashing on them.
Are these actual police officers or just a thing construction guys can do to help make people slow down/drive safer?

Thanks!

 

[GlobalNorth]

A lot of off-duty MCSO deputies and smaller police agencies work these street construction jobs. They put red/blue lights on their vehicles to slow traffic around the construction zone. Some jobs will pay for agency vehicles and they are sometimes seen at these types of jobs. They are cops, because city inspectors inspect these jobs to verify that there is a LEO at the job and that the contractor is abiding by the terms they agreed to.

AMR frequencies are used for internal dispatch for inter-facility transports, move ups, etc. Someone in the E.V. can provide better info.

Tempe PD has essentially three districts: North, South, and Central City. US 60 was the boundary line between north and south. Central City is the downtown area and the ASU area.

 

[Mountain343]

Tempe PD has essentially three districts: North, South, and Central City. US 60 was the boundary line between north and south. Central City is the downtown area and the ASU area.

Thanks for the info, especially on the construction sites.

And I thought they had 3, and in RWC it used to list N - 2601, C - 2602 & S-2603 but now it just shows N & S and C is now a Tac. I've tried listening in on A05 - Mill ave but never seem to hear anything there as well.

Did N absorb C? Like I mentioned, I'm at ASU and while listening to ASU PD has its moments, I'd like to follow Tempe PD in this area... if I can figure out who/what/where.

 

[GlobalNorth]

Central city may now be encrypted. They were doing it on July 4th, NYE, game nights, commencement, etc. but may have gone full time. Mill Avenue traffic alone pretty much needs a separate channel much of the time.

TPD has gone through three chiefs in the past 6 years and since I am no longer at ASU, I don't keep up with them much. Changing districts is an easy way for a chief to show he/she is doing something that amounts to nothing at the same time.

 

[cellphone]

This is a lot of questions in a single thread. I'll try to answer a few.

I'm back in AZ giving a talk at ASU and just noticed that the KDECK channels aren't active on RWC F Tempe, but I can get them on Chandler.
Is this normal? Is there not a single fire radio affliated with the Tempe cell?

I am also seeing that K Deck talkgroups are not active on Simulcast F. I'm not sure if this is by design of if there is an issue. Simulcast B, C, and H have coverage into West, South, and North Tempe respectively. Maybe they are relying on these other Simulcast Cells at this time for coverage.

K7 is Tempe's primary non-hazard response channel. It is active on Simulcast C, but not Simulcast F currently.

For the Tempe PD does anyone know where the cutoff is for North and South regions?
From listening it it appears to maybe be Baseline, but I'm not sure.

Below is a Beat Map for Tempe PD. I'm not 100% sure on the split might be Broadway Road. I have not listened that closely to determine. I'm not sure on Beats 19 & 20 on the map. I think those are both on South.
Patrol Beats & Contacts | City of Tempe, AZ

 

[cellphone]

And I thought they had 3, and in RWC it used to list N - 2601, C - 2602 & S-2603 but now it just shows N & S and C is now a Tac.

Tempe has always been split North and South. Their "Central" 2602 talkgroup might be for a future dispatch talkgroup. It is currently used as Tac channel with a lot of informal side talks. Talkgroup 2602 was incorrectly listed as a Dispatch service type, but this was not correct. It was changed to Tac a few months back to correctly represent its current use.

A05 - Mill ave but never seem to hear anything there as well.

A05 is not always active. It is VERY active on Friday and Saturday nights.

 

[cellphone]

There's a LOT of construction on the streets around here and there are some real janky looking unmarked vehicles with a mish-mash of ebay looking red and blue lights flashing on them.
Are these actual police officers or just a thing construction guys can do to help make people slow down/drive safer?

I have always assumed these guys being off duty PD using their personal vehicles. In the past I have seen this, with someone casually watching traffic that is in a uniform. I never got a close look to see if this was an actual PD uniform, or some whacker Metro State / Jeremy Dewitte type.

Either way, it seems to get traffic to slow down, so they are providing an effective service.

 

[DanRollman]

...or some whacker Metro State / Jeremy Dewitte type.

There can't possibly be more than one Jeremy Dewitte. That nutjob is legend.

 

[cfsimmont]

I'm back in AZ giving a talk at ASU and just noticed that the KDECK channels aren't active on RWC F Tempe, but I can get them on Chandler.
Is this normal? Is there not a single fire radio affliated with the Tempe cell?

Also looking through the archives, I see the main ambulance out here is PMT... which seems to be owned by Lifeline... which seems to now be owned by AMR.
While I hear them dispatched on A1/K1 as PMT 27X, is there another frequency they use as well? Maybe AMR East?

====

For the Tempe PD does anyone know where the cutoff is for North and South regions?
From listening it it appears to maybe be Baseline, but I'm not sure.

There's a LOT of construction on the streets around here and there are some real janky looking unmarked vehicles with a mish-mash of ebay looking red and blue lights flashing on them.
Are these actual police officers or just a thing construction guys can do to help make people slow down/drive safer?

Thanks!

For whatever reason Simulcast F doesn't carry any of the Fire K-Deck channels that I have heard. Possibly due to Simulcast B, C, & H having such a large coverage area and overlapping. Tempe is working a water rescue at Tempe Town Lake, and no Fire activity on F, but picking it up on C. Simulcast F does carry the RWC Interop channels, G-Deck and possibly Ocean. Not sure about the setup for Tempe PD's North and South channels other than I do hear them running hot on A4 whenever there is a shooting in Guadalupe and they are going to provide backup for MCSO.

 

[DanRollman]

For whatever reason Simulcast F doesn't carry any of the Fire K-Deck channels that I have heard. Possibly due to Simulcast B, C, & H having such a large coverage area and overlapping. Tempe is working a water rescue at Tempe Town Lake, and no Fire activity on F, but picking it up on C. Simulcast F does carry the RWC Interop channels, G-Deck and possibly Ocean. Not sure about the setup for Tempe PD's North and South channels other than I do hear them running hot on A4 whenever there is a shooting in Guadalupe and they are going to provide backup for MCSO.

Biggest defect in the RR database, in my opinion, is that it doesn't have a clear way to reflect information about what Sites typically carry what talkgroups. I'm not talking about roaming - scanner listeners can't rely on that. But it would be nice to know what Sites virtually always carry a talkgroup of interest. What I did on the PCWIN page is the best I could do.

 

[apco25]

Arizona has no provisions for the Dewitt type whackery going on. It's an oddly quiet state for such nonsense thankfully.

 

[K7MFC]

Arizona has no provisions for the Dewitt type whackery going on. It's an oddly quiet state for such nonsense thankfully.

You can still see whackers in the wild here, usually in the form of the funeral escort whacker. A couple months ago I was southbound on Gilbert Rd at Baseline where I saw one of these guys "directing traffic" around a small fender bender in the center lane. The whole get up: insanely excessive red, white, blue, and amber LED lights all over a 10+ year old F-150, hi-vis vest with "Funeral Escort" on the back. Matching "Funeral Escort" magnets slapped on the door of the truck too. I'm sure he fancied himself as "first on the scene" or whatever lol. Definitely not the first time I've seen one of these Funeral Escort types going code 3 with no procession in sight.

 

[GlobalNorth]

I have always assumed these guys being off duty PD using their personal vehicles. In the past I have seen this, with someone casually watching traffic that is in a uniform. I never got a close look to see if this was an actual PD uniform, or some whacker Metro State / Jeremy Dewitte type.

Either way, it seems to get traffic to slow down, so they are providing an effective service.

Back in the day, I used to do these jobs for vacation cash, a new toy, etc. Some of the jobs are simply "sit in your vehicle and be available if the city streets inspector shows up", "stop traffic if the backhoe needs to maneuver around", or "walk alongside the street profiler for the next ten hours and block traffic when we cross the intersection". Most of the work was done in the summer and it wasn't pleasant.

I never put emergency lights on my vehicle. The agency I worked for didn't allow them on POVs and if a contractor wanted a vehicle with lights, they could certainly pay the government to get a properly marked vehicle with lights and siren for the job.

There are whackers in Arizona and many of them got away with it by being members of Sheriff Joe's numerous posses. Never mind that they weren't allowed to have red/blue lights and sirens as Posse members, but many did and some got caught running red lights, not yielding to Fire/EMS vehicles, and operating a "motor vehicle while mindless".

The whackers that still exist are the delusional and dangerous ones.The State of Arizona keeps intel on convicted whackers and doesn't consider them a harmless annoyance.

 

[GlobalNorth]

You can still see whackers in the wild here, usually in the form of the funeral escort whacker.

They have "occupational permits" and are recognized by the State of Arizona under Title 28. See statute here.

They aren't whackers in the legal sense, but they will spend thousands of dollars for the latest in LED emergency lighting and sirens. Their houses usually look as well kept up as the one at 1313 Mockingbird Place, in Mockingbird Heights.

 

[scannerizer]

I'm back in AZ giving a talk at ASU and just noticed that the KDECK channels aren't active on RWC F Tempe, but I can get them on Chandler.
Is this normal? Is there not a single fire radio affliated with the Tempe cell?

Also looking through the archives, I see the main ambulance out here is PMT... which seems to be owned by Lifeline... which seems to now be owned by AMR.
While I hear them dispatched on A1/K1 as PMT 27X, is there another frequency they use as well? Maybe AMR East?

====

For the Tempe PD does anyone know where the cutoff is for North and South regions?
From listening it it appears to maybe be Baseline, but I'm not sure.

There's a LOT of construction on the streets around here and there are some real janky looking unmarked vehicles with a mish-mash of ebay looking red and blue lights flashing on them.
Are these actual police officers or just a thing construction guys can do to help make people slow down/drive safer?

Thanks!

For Police: I did some research as I wanted to know myself. Looking at their procedures, it seems the cutoff is Broadway, so north of Broadway broadcast on 2601, and south on 2603 (I believe).

Tempe Fire is part of a large Regional Comm Center in Phoenix dispatching many suburban fire agencies (including Tempe). Recently, I'm hearing their ambulances dispatched as Medic 27X, and from their site, it looks like those are PMT rigs.

Not sure about the construction.

 

[Foresigt]

For Police: I did some research as I wanted to know myself. Looking at their procedures, it seems the cutoff is Broadway, so north of Broadway broadcast on 2601, and south on 2603 (I believe).

Tempe Fire is part of a large Regional Comm Center in Phoenix dispatching many suburban fire agencies (including Tempe). Recently, I'm hearing their ambulances dispatched as Medic 27X, and from their site, it looks like those are PMT rigs.

Not sure about the construction.

The Medic 27X units are their own ambulances. They started putting them on the road over a year ago. They only have a handful right now.

 

[KB7MIB]

A rescue is a fire department/district ambulance that is staffed by EMS personnel that are cross-trained as firefighters. Can be either ALS or BLS, and either full-time or part-time

A medic unit is a fire department/district ambulance that is staffed by EMS personnel that are not cross-trained as firefighters, but are still department/district employees.

John
Peoria

 

[Mountain343]

Thanks everyone, that helped a lot and the talk went well. Next up, on to Mesa Community College so I guess I need to learn all about TOPAZ next! Especially to see if they have a CAD/Incident website like the phoenix incident one.

(Y'all need pulsepoint out here, seriously!)

 

[cfsimmont]

Thanks everyone, that helped a lot and the talk went well. Next up, on to Mesa Community College so I guess I need to learn all about TOPAZ next! Especially to see if they have a CAD/Incident website like the phoenix incident one.

(Y'all need pulsepoint out here, seriously!)

Topaz is a fairly simple system to monitor, most everything is on the Mesa Simulcast, few talk groups are on the Thompson Peak site. Sadly, Topaz does not have an CAD website like the Phx RWC. One of the best things about Topaz is the fire VHF hazard channels are simulcasted onto the digital system and in the clear unlike Phoenix.

 

[scannerizer]

A rescue is a fire department/district ambulance that is staffed by EMS personnel that are cross-trained as firefighters. Can be either ALS or BLS, and either full-time or part-time

A medic unit is a fire department/district ambulance that is staffed by EMS personnel that are not cross-trained as firefighters, but are still department/district employees.

John
Peoria

Phoenix Fire has Rescue units, which are staffed with FF/Paramedics. But cities like Chandler and Tempe, then, are staffed with civillian employees (according to what I read on Tempe's site, anyway).

By the way, to avoid writing an extra post, does anyone know the reasoning beyond Phoenix Dispatch's decision to encrypt the fire A Patches, but not Mesa to encrypt their B Patches? I mean, it would make life a ton easier as currently, I go to the bedroom (my BC340CRS), to listen to fires because its telescoping antenna seems to allow me to catch distant signals better than the rubber on the handheld.

All I'm saying is there's no rhyme or reason fo Phoenix to encrypt their A patches if Mesa isn't.