Indy Officers under fire for radio chatter

Indianapolis police and an area school district are investigating claims that officers are using radio frequencies without the proper permission, the website Officer.com reports.

John, a licensed ham radio operator and former police, fire and ambulance dispatcher who wanted to remain anonymous, told 6News' Jack Rinehart that late at night, he hears officers have conversations on a frequency licensed to Greenfield Schools.

"It wasn't the type of conversation I would expect to hear on that frequency," John said. "They were talking about cases they were working on. They were running license numbers and talking about people coming and going from an east side apartment complex."

John said he's recorded 72 hours of what sounded like car-to-car conversations, some of them not fit for broadcast.

"Oh yeah, there's a lot of it when they're talking about certain people, like prostitutes. (It's) f-this, f-that," John said.

Police said officers oftentimes use their own private two-way radios to communicate with each other about suspects or crimes, rather than tie up radio channels operated by police dispatchers.

After 6News first raised with the issue with police in February 2009, the department created a policy allowing for use of personally owned two-way radios, but only if officers seek the written permission of a deputy chief and obtain the proper federal licenses.

The policy also requires that all radios must be installed by police fleet technicians.

Read the full story from Officer.com at:
http://www.officer.com/online/article.jsp
?siteSection=1&id=55275

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