12 Mar 1995
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| LISTENING TO THE POLICE IN CANTERBURY |
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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.
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]
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 <number>, but sometimes
they're called by their unit name - CHD <number>
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
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.
