12 Mar 1995 /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ | | | LISTENING TO THE POLICE IN CANTERBURY | | | \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ This document has been written with the intention of helping the hobby listener to understand the system used. If you're listening and see something that could help the police, ring them! Any information that gets the bad guy behind bars is useful. Don't get in their way either. With this information, you should be able to get a better picture through your ears sitting at home listening to the people involved rather than watching from the sideline. The staff out on the job have to report to control what's going on, so you won't miss much. The Frequencies used ==================== Channel Frequency ------- --------- Christchurch 1 Car 75.737.5 MHz NFM Step 12.5 1 Portable 487.325.0 MHz NFM Step 5 487.350.0 MHz NFM Step 5 2 Car 75.812.5 MHz NFM Step 12.5 2 Portable 486.675.0 MHz NFM Step 5 485.225.0 MHz NFM Step 5 3 Car 75.300.0 MHz NFM Step 12.5 Beat Portable 487.375.0 MHz NFM Step 5 Rural (Car) 75.712.5 MHz NFM Step 12.5 Akaroa 75.925.0 MHz NFM Step 12.5 Selwyn 75.950.0 MHz NFM Step 12.5 Rural (Portable) 485.925.0 MHz NFM Step 5 485.975.0 MHz NFM Step 5 485.950.0 MHz NFM Step 5 Car refers to the radio mounted into the cars, Portable refers to the radio that officers carry on them. To listen in on the car frequencies, you'll need a decent length aerial (1/2 a metre?), with the portable frequencies, you'll only need a very short aerial (a short flexable one will do) The Step is the setting you use in a Scanner (which is what you're most likely listening to them with). All frequencies are on Narrow FM (NFM). Normal radios (that pick up 91ZM etc) use Wide FM (WFM). If you have had one of these modified to listen to the police, chances are you'll be listening to the car frequencies (which you'll need a decent aerial to get) in WFM. This means that it will be heard a lot quieter than if you were using NFM, and you'll probably get several channels at once (because WFM doesn't tune as precisly as NFM) If you're using a flexible rubber aerial on a scanner, you'll hear the Portable frequencies best. A scanner is the best device to listen to the emergency services with. It will pick up the conversations clearly, allow you to jump to another channel instantly when the police do, or scan through many channels at once stopping only when there's activity on one, then carry on scanning when that activity stops. The main channel used is Channel 1, which is used to dispatch and receive information on current jobs within the city, and to contact units to tell them to go to another channel to talk. Channel 1 conversations are always breif to keep the airwaves clear for urgent transmissions. Channel 2 is used to do checks on Vehicles (QVR) and people (QP), and to have phone calls made etc. Channel 3 & Beat Channel are both used by units to talk to each other on or for lengthly conversations to the Control room. Sometimes if a major event is going on, either channel one or two are used for that and all other traffic is handled on the other one (i.e. normal issuing of jobs and checks on vehicles etc are all done on one channel) There are also Channels for Kaiapoi, Lyttleton, Rangiora, North Canterbury and other rural areas and a community channel. They are all linked together. The community channel is used for big public events which require a large police attendance. In Christchurch, a lot of the frequencies are linked. That means the same transmission can be heard on any of the frequencies for the channels that are linked. Channel 1 car & Channel 1 portable are linked Channel 2 car & Channel 2 portable are linked Channel 3 car & Beat Channel (portable) are linked. All Channels for the area surrounding the city are linked (i.e. Kaiapoi, Lyttleton etc, and the community channel is also linked with these). (All these frequencies are broadcast by a repeater, they are not the frequency that is broadcast on by the unit transmitting) The City is divided up into the following areas... AREA (Callsign) ---- ---------- Northern (NT) Southern (ST) Eastern (ES) Central (CT) Hornby (HO) Christchurch (CH) [for units that cover all areas] Rural areas are... Akaroa (AO) Cheviot (CV) Darfield (DF) Kaiapoi (KI) Lyttleton (LT) Rangiora (RR) Selwyn (SE) Units that each area has (CT,ES,NT,HO,ST, and some in Rural areas) ------------------------ E = Enquiry I = Incident J = Combined (CIB and GDB) Enquiry Q = One-man Complaints T = Traffic Units that cover the whole city (CH) ------------------------------- A = Inspector D = Dogs F = Photography N = Senior Sergeant P = Team Policing S = Sergeant V = Traffic Sergeant W = Speed Camera Car Z = Anti Terrorist Squad Central Only (CT) ------------ B = Beat (staff on foot walking the central city) Rural Units ----------- R - Rural Each Rural area has an 'R' unit, and sometimes has others that are listed above as being in all areas. (Team Policing is the big van that has lots of police in it and an area to lock offenders in. It's on the road on Fri & Sat nights usually) The unit name consists of the area they're in (listed above), then another few letters for what sort of unit they are, and a sequence letter/number if there's more that one of them. The Control room is called Control. Other Units that don't use the above system are... ----------- AOS Armed Offenders Squad DAO Duly Authorised Officer (from Sunnyside, called to get someone commited to a mental hospital) ??O Community Constables, where ME=Merivale, PI=Papanui, AD=Addington SY=Sydenham, CN=Central, LY=Lyttelton, etc. SOCO Scene Of Crime Officer While there is an actual AOS, the term is often used to refer to an operation that involves an armed offender, even if the squad isn't used. It's always spoken in the form of (To):(From), usually they say nothing inbetween. Sometimes they say (To): from (From). e.g. Control EST or Control from EST. Control monitors channels 1,2 & Rural. There is a senior sergeant present in the control room (also refered to as the supervisor), and is sometimes requested by a unit on channel 1 to chat on channel 3 or beat. The Senior Sergeant isn't normally on the air in the control room. There are about 14 dog units, not all on the road at the same time though. There is no dog unit on the road from sometime around 12am-2am until about 6am during the week. Their unit number is permanently assigned, so just because you hear Dogs 8 being called doesn't mean there is 8 Dog units on the road! Usually the Dog units are just refered to as Dogs , but sometimes they're called by their unit name - CHD On the road at all times are 2 armed cars (Sergeants). They go under the units CHS,CHV & CHN. They don't normally get sent to jobs on their own, they are out there to supervise & help the other units where necessary. If a job requires an armed unit, the CHS/V/N unit is sent in, and another unit gets sent back into the watch house to pick up the guns. Other units are set up in a cordon around the area and the car that went in to pick up the guns goes around and hands them out. After the event the unit that handed them out stays in one place and they're all brought back to it. Aparently all guns are checked to see if any bullets have been discharged. The guns are refered to as 'the neccessary', 'piece of equipment', etc, they are not often refered to as guns. Cars are refered to as being 1 up if there's one officer in the car, and 2 up if there's 2. Sargents only ever have 1, all other cars usually have 2 during the night, 1 or 2 during the day. Top Job & Micky Duck means a scungy job. When a unit goes 4q, which is doing enquires at a place, in the Christchurch area, they advise control of the address they are at, or in the Rural areas, they give a phone number that they are at. Speed Camera cars always call control and notify them of the site they are operating. They say the number followed by the road they're on. As some roads have more than one site, here's a list of them... Speed Camera Sites (out of date list) ================== 1 Dyers Pass Road - McMillan Ave to Colombo St 2 Tunnel Road - Port Hills Interchange to Tunnel Portal 3 Ferry Road - Tunnel Rd to St Johns St 4 Main Road - McCormacks Bay West to Bridle Path Rd 5 Main Road - Wakatu Ave to Nayland St 6 Ferry Road - Wilsons Rd to Bordesley St 7 Aldwins Road - Ferry Rd to Harrow St 8 Pages Road - Bickerton St to Marlow St 9 Woodham Road - Worcester St to Kerrs Rd 10 Kerrs Road / Wainoni Road - Pannell Rd to Cuffs Rd 11 New Brighton Rd - Golf Links Rd to Cresswell Ave East 12 New Brighton Rd - Lake Terrace Rd to 100m East of Stour St 13 Cranford Street - Edeware Rd to Berwick St 14 Blenheim Road - Annex Rd to Middleton Rd 15 Main South Rd - Parker St to Goulding St 16 Peer Street / Waimairi Road - Dovedale Ave to 200m South of Athol Pl 17 Wairakei Road - Grahams Rd to Farrindton Ave 18 Johns Road - Gardiners Rd to Wilkinson Rd 19 Marshland Road / Main North Road - Link Rd to 500m South of Turners Rd 20 Fitzerald Avenue - Hereford St to Armah St 21 Centaurus Road - Rapaki Rd to Opawa Rd Used a lot are the 10 Codes. These codes are not the same world wide, even though most police forces use 10 codes. They are used to report the status of a unit. 10 Codes ======== 10.0 Finished Duty 10.1 All Patrol Bulletin 10.2 Enroute to a job. 10.3 Free 10.4 Please repeat 10.5 Off air for 5 mins. 10.6 Change Channel (followed by channel number, not used much though, they usually just say go to channel n ) 10.7 Arrived at scene. 10.8 Off air. 10.9 Urgent, priority 10.10 Immediate/Panic -------------------------------------------------------------------- Incident Codes ============== 1a Alarm 1b Bomb Scare 1c Suspicious Person 1d Domestic 1e Emergency 1f Fire 1m Mental Person 1n Noisy Party 1p Insecure Premises 1s Sudden Death 1v Motor Accident 1x Attempted Suicide 1z Other Incident Task Codes ========== 2a Advise Relatives 2b Housie/Raffle 2l Recovery (Lost property) 2m Missing Person 2p Public Relations 2r Recovery (Stolen Vehicle) 2s Summons 2t Truancy 2w Warrant Preventative Codes ================== 3b Beat Patrol 3c Crime Prevention Advice 3f Foot Patrol 3h Hotel Patrol 3k Keys Taken 3p Team Policing 3r Roadblock or checkpoint 3t Turning over person or vehicle 3w Watching or Observing 3y Youth Aid Talk 3z Other Preventative Method Result ====== K.0 Nothing appreciable K.1 Completed at scene, no paper work involved K.2 Unable to complete, Nobody home K.3 No Offense, Blameless K.4 Cautioned or told off K.5 Report to follow K.6 Offence report to follow K.7 Handing over to Specialist K.8 Finishing assisting Primary Car K.9 Arrest Departmental Codes ================== 4a Armed Offenders 4c Correspondence 4d Demonstration Duty 4e Escort Duty 4f Fingerprints 4i Injury/Sick 4k Court Duty 4l Departmental Errand 4m Meal Break 4p Public Entertainment 4q Enquiries 4r Rescue 4s Vehicle Servicing 4t Training 4v V.I.P.Duty 4x Special Duty 4z Other Misc.Duty Administrative Code =================== 5a Accounts 5c Communications 5d Dogs 5e Equipment and issues 5f Functions, stations, sections 5i Instruction and training 5l Licensing 5o Operations, security, specimens 5p Policy matters 5q Queries and complaints 5s Staff Check 5t Transport and travel 5w Works and housing 5z Other admin. files Query Codes =========== QVR Query Vehicle Registration QP Query Person (subcodes) I = Information H = History F = Firearms L = Licence W = Warrants QY Query Serial Number QF Query File QEC Query Engine/Chassis No VOI response to a QVR = No Vehicle of Interest Some other terms used ===================== EBA = Excess Breath Alcohol Tip it Out refers to searching a car or person, or questioning them when they are suspected of doing something illegal. Willie Damage = Willful Damage Watch House = The area where people that have been arrested are taken to in the Central Police Station. Job Details Please = Control is about to give the unit called some details on a job which usually requires them to pull over and write them down, the unit will respond 'go ahead' or something like that when they are ready. Muster Room = A room in at the main Police station where officers do their paperwork. SAP = Safe Arrival Point Dogs 20 = Bomb Dog Bunker = Bomb Shelter Some other information you probably don't need to know! ======================================================= There also exists a list of 4 digit codes which are assigned to each type of offence (usually said as 'coded as xxxx' by Control). These are hardly used thesedays so it's not worth trying to compile a list of them. Even when they are used, the english equivilent is also used so having them is pointless. The handheld radios the Police use are Motorola Sabre's, model 2s. They have the whole country's frequencies programmed into them, so if an officer goes into another area, he just changes it to that area's frequencies. The actual frequencies are not shown on the radio's screen, the channel is shown in words.