Jackson County Sheriff Approves of scanner users

[rochedalescan]

http://cjonline.com/news/2012-06-01/jac ... return-air

The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office’s radio traffic will soon be back on the air for those who monitor scanners, said Sheriff Tim Morse.

Currently, the sheriff’s office has been operating on 800 MHz trunking channels provided by the state.

Jackson County had received approximately $100,000 in 800 MHz radio equipment in the recent past. The federal government required agencies to become compliant by narrow banding their radio equipment prior to 2013, Morse said.

Following the narrow banding, the current radio system became insufficient, and radio communications became severely diminished countywide. This posed a risk to officer safety, the sheriff said. Therefore the 800 MHz system, which is a statewide system intended to be a backup system, has been in use.

Currently, the sheriff’s office dispatch simulcasts on both the Vhf system and the newer 800 MHz system. However, most scanner listeners only hear one side of the conversation. After the completion of the upgrade to dispatch, which funding has been provided for in a recent grant, both systems will be linked together, allowing listeners to hear traffic on either system.

Listeners can listen to current radio communications if they have an 800 MHz trunk tracking scanner.

A number of people have said they missed being able to hear both sides of the radio traffic.

“It is important for the community to hear and see what their law enforcement is doing,” Morse said. “For those who do listen, those are the folks who are aware of much of what we do. However, with the public’s need to hear what we are doing also presents the problem of giving criminals a heads up.”

“The sheriff’s office has had the ability to encrypt radio traffic for sensitive communications for over a decade,” Morse said. “When criminals are apprehended, it is common to find them in the possession of scanners. So you might want to wait on buying a new and more expensive scanner. The new system should be in place in approximately four months.”

[rochedalescan]

Granted this is America however it's not often you hear law enforcement supporting scanner users