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12 Mar 1995 /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ | | | LISTENING TO THE POLICE IN CANTERBURY | | | \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

This document has been written with the intention of helping the hobbylistener 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 toget a better picture through your ears sitting at home listening to thepeople involved rather than watching from the sideline. The staff out onthe 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 12.51 Portable 487.325.0 MHz NFM Step 5 487.350.0 MHz NFM Step 52 Car 75.812.5 MHz NFM Step 12.52 Portable 486.675.0 MHz NFM Step 5 485.225.0 MHz NFM Step 53 Car 75.300.0 MHz NFM Step 12.5Beat Portable 487.375.0 MHz NFM Step 5

Rural (Car)

75.712.5 MHz NFM Step 12.5Akaroa 75.925.0 MHz NFM Step 12.5Selwyn 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 tothe radio that officers carry on them. To listen in on the carfrequencies, 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'remost likely listening to them with).All frequencies are on Narrow FM (NFM). Normal radios (that pick up91ZM etc) use Wide FM (WFM). If you have had one of these modifiedto listen to the police, chances are you'll be listening to the carfrequencies (which you'll need a decent aerial to get) in WFM. Thismeans 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

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tune as precisly as NFM)If you're using a flexible rubber aerial on a scanner, you'llhear the Portable frequencies best.A scanner is the best device to listen to the emergency services with. Itwill pick up the conversations clearly, allow you to jump to anotherchannel instantly when the police do, or scan through many channels atonce stopping only when there's activity on one, then carry on scanningwhen that activity stops.

The main channel used is Channel 1, which is used to dispatch andreceive information on current jobs within the city, and to contact

units to tell them to go to another channel to talk. Channel 1conversations are always breif to keep the airwaves clear forurgent transmissions.Channel 2 is used to do checks on Vehicles (QVR) and people (QP), and tohave phone calls made etc.Channel 3 & Beat Channel are both used by units to talk to each other onor for lengthly conversations to the Control room.Sometimes if a major event is going on, either channel one or two areused 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 onechannel)There are also Channels for Kaiapoi, Lyttleton, Rangiora, North Canterburyand other rural areas and a community channel. They are all linked

together. The community channel is used for big public events whichrequire a large police attendance.

In Christchurch, a lot of the frequencies are linked. That means thesame transmission can be heard on any of the frequencies for thechannels that are linked.Channel 1 car & Channel 1 portable are linkedChannel 2 car & Channel 2 portable are linkedChannel 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)

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Units that each area has (CT,ES,NT,HO,ST, and some in Rural areas)------------------------E = EnquiryI = IncidentJ = Combined (CIB and GDB) EnquiryQ = One-man ComplaintsT = Traffic

Units that cover the whole city (CH)-------------------------------

A = InspectorD = DogsF = PhotographyN = Senior SergeantP = Team PolicingS = SergeantV = Traffic SergeantW = Speed Camera CarZ = Anti Terrorist Squad

Central Only (CT)------------

B = Beat (staff on foot walking the central city)

Rural Units-----------R - RuralEach Rural area has an 'R' unit, and sometimes has othersthat 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), thenanother few letters for what sort of unit they are, and a sequenceletter/number if there's more that one of them. The Control room iscalled Control.

Other Units that don't use the above system are...-----------AOS Armed Offenders SquadDAO 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 nothinginbetween. Sometimes they say (To): from (From). e.g. Control EST orControl from EST.Control monitors channels 1,2 & Rural. There is a senior sergeantpresent in the control room (also refered to as the supervisor), andis sometimes requested by a unit on channel 1 to chat on channel 3 or

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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 about6am during the week. Their unit number is permanently assigned, sojust because you hear Dogs 8 being called doesn't mean there is 8 Dogunits on the road!Usually the Dog units are just refered to as Dogs , but sometimesthey're called by their unit name - CHD On the road at all times are 2 armed cars (Sergeants). They go under theunits 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 ajob requires an armed unit, the CHS/V/N unit is sent in, and anotherunit gets sent back into the watch house to pick up the guns.Other units are set up in a cordon around the area andthe car that went in to pick up the guns goes around and hands themout. After the event the unit that handed them out stays in one placeand they're all brought back to it. Aparently all guns are checked tosee 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 Christchurcharea, they advise control of the address they are at, or in the Ruralareas, they give a phone number that they are at.

Speed Camera cars always call control and notify them of the site they areoperating. They say the number followed by the road they're on. As someroads 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 St2 Tunnel Road - Port Hills Interchange to Tunnel Portal3 Ferry Road - Tunnel Rd to St Johns St4 Main Road - McCormacks Bay West to Bridle Path Rd5 Main Road - Wakatu Ave to Nayland St6 Ferry Road - Wilsons Rd to Bordesley St7 Aldwins Road - Ferry Rd to Harrow St8 Pages Road - Bickerton St to Marlow St9 Woodham Road - Worcester St to Kerrs Rd10 Kerrs Road / Wainoni Road - Pannell Rd to Cuffs Rd11 New Brighton Rd - Golf Links Rd to Cresswell Ave East12 New Brighton Rd - Lake Terrace Rd to 100m East of Stour St13 Cranford Street - Edeware Rd to Berwick St

14 Blenheim Road - Annex Rd to Middleton Rd15 Main South Rd - Parker St to Goulding St16 Peer Street / Waimairi Road - Dovedale Ave to 200m South of Athol Pl17 Wairakei Road - Grahams Rd to Farrindton Ave18 Johns Road - Gardiners Rd to Wilkinson Rd19 Marshland Road / Main North Road - Link Rd to 500m South of Turners Rd20 Fitzerald Avenue - Hereford St to Armah St21 Centaurus Road - Rapaki Rd to Opawa Rd

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Used a lot are the 10 Codes. These codes are not the same world wide, eventhough most police forces use 10 codes. They are used to report thestatus of a unit.

10 Codes========

10.0 Finished Duty10.1 All Patrol Bulletin10.2 Enroute to a job.10.3 Free

10.4 Please repeat10.5 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, priority10.10 Immediate/Panic

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Incident Codes==============

1a Alarm1b Bomb Scare1c Suspicious Person1d Domestic1e Emergency1f Fire1m Mental Person1n Noisy Party1p Insecure Premises1s Sudden Death1v Motor Accident1x Attempted Suicide1z Other Incident

Task Codes==========2a Advise Relatives2b Housie/Raffle2l Recovery (Lost property)2m Missing Person2p Public Relations2r Recovery (Stolen Vehicle)2s Summons2t Truancy2w Warrant

Preventative Codes==================3b Beat Patrol3c Crime Prevention Advice3f Foot Patrol3h Hotel Patrol3k Keys Taken3p Team Policing3r Roadblock or checkpoint3t Turning over person or vehicle

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3w Watching or Observing3y Youth Aid Talk3z Other Preventative Method

Result======K.0 Nothing appreciableK.1 Completed at scene, no paper work involvedK.2 Unable to complete, Nobody homeK.3 No Offense, BlamelessK.4 Cautioned or told off

K.5 Report to followK.6 Offence report to followK.7 Handing over to SpecialistK.8 Finishing assisting Primary CarK.9 Arrest

Departmental Codes==================4a Armed Offenders4c Correspondence4d Demonstration Duty4e Escort Duty4f Fingerprints

4i Injury/Sick4k Court Duty4l Departmental Errand4m Meal Break4p Public Entertainment4q Enquiries4r Rescue4s Vehicle Servicing4t Training4v V.I.P.Duty4x Special Duty4z Other Misc.Duty

Administrative Code===================5a Accounts5c Communications5d Dogs5e Equipment and issues5f Functions, stations, sections5i Instruction and training5l Licensing5o Operations, security, specimens5p Policy matters5q Queries and complaints5s Staff Check

5t Transport and travel5w Works and housing5z Other admin. files

Query Codes===========QVR Query Vehicle RegistrationQP Query Person (subcodes) I = Information H = History

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F = Firearms L = Licence W = WarrantsQY Query Serial NumberQF Query FileQEC Query Engine/Chassis

No VOI response to a QVR = No Vehicle of Interest

Some other terms used=====================

EBA = Excess Breath AlcoholTip it Out refers to searching a car or person, or questioning them whenthey are suspected of doing something illegal.Willie Damage = Willful DamageWatch 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 somedetails on a job which usually requires them to pull over and writethem down, the unit will respond 'go ahead' or something like thatwhen they are ready.Muster Room = A room in at the main Police station where officers dotheir paperwork.SAP = Safe Arrival Point

Dogs 20 = Bomb DogBunker = 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 eachtype of offence (usually said as 'coded as xxxx' by Control). Theseare hardly used thesedays so it's not worth trying to compile a listof them. Even when they are used, the english equivilent is also usedso 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, soif an officer goes into another area, he just changes it to thatarea's frequencies. The actual frequencies are not shown on theradio's screen, the channel is shown in words.