LA Times: Town criers in the age of Twitter

A growing group of L.A.-area residents share a passion for listening to police scanners and spreading that news online, in real time, via Twitter. 'It's like theater,' one says.

Read the full story at the LA Times

Pasadena PD now in the clear, sort of...

Yesterday the Pasadena Police Department released a press statement announcing a non encrypted ICIS talk group of 2485, this will allow the public to listen to the initial dispatch, incident type, location and time of Pasadena PD calls.

From the release:

The Pasadena Police Department is increasing its public information efforts by providing more crime statistic information on its website and the radio frequency codes for the public to listen to radio calls for service. 

LA County Fire, actually starts narrow-banding.

Well it was no April fools joke, I woke up this morning and noticed something was different, there was no 0700 "wake up call" on LA County Tac 19. That's because Tac 19 is no more.

For years there has been a daily 7:00 AM test of the old Quick Call alerting system on what was a remnant of the original VHF dispatch system for LA County Fire. In recent years the 154.400 MHz frequency, called Tac 19, has been used for communicating between LA County dispatch and various County Fire and LASD Air Rescue helicopters, not to mention by USFS, Cal Fire, and Search and Rescue personell on the ground during emergencies.

Open mic...

Cop Keys Down While Having Sex In Squad Car

"Anytime you communicate via a handheld or console microphone you want to remain professional. Our job is to make sure all officers follow procedures. In this instance it's possible he didn't follow proper procedure,"

Read the Whole story here.

Pasadena continues to deny access to police radio traffic

PASADENA - Nearly a month after the police department switched to a digitally encrypted radio signal, city leaders still have no plans to allow local media live access to police chatter, officials said.


Pasadena began employing the system on Jan. 7, switching from an analog radio signal to an encrypted signal that prevents journalists and hobbyists from monitoring the police signal.
On Friday, Pasadena police Lt. Phlunte Riddle said the department was unsure whether it could accommodate the media with digital scanners.

Riddle said the greatest concern remains officer safety.

"People who do bank robberies use scanners, and Radio Shack sells these things cheap," Riddle said.      


Read more from the Pasadena Start News

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