Emergency Buttons?

[LA5150]

[QUOTE=james13f;684693] I don't quite see the point to the 'E' buttons.[QUOTE]

Because sometimes we're unable to talk on the radio when we need help.

For instance, the button is useful when you're wrestling a PCP suspect, and can't spare more than a moment to hit the switch to get the troops rolling towards you.

[B'ham FAL]

We've got it (and that radio - how come cellular phones are playing card pack size and we have this behemoth to carry around on an already over-crowded belt?) and it works. A 2nd button is also located on the lapel mic. Pushing the button does not disable anyone's ability to talk on the channel including the officer in trouble. Pushing the button does tell dispatch exactly which officer (down to their name) is in trouble. Most (85%) of our cars also have GPS on them and dispatch can watch us roll around on a moving map display in real time. At the touch of a button the map will scroll to whatever car they want to locate. False alarms are more common then the real thing.

That being said a department where officers can drift towards each others calls is a nice 'emergency' feature that makes the button very effective. Nothing like having 30-60 second response time when backup is needed.

[MDEMT280]

James, are you saying that using the emergency button switches the officer to another frequency? Seems to me that's a radio programming issue that could be addressed. We have none of the cons you have. The officer stays on the channel, and it doesn't lock anyone else out. It DOES lock in the channel, however, so on our 800 MHz system, the officer won't get "bonked out" when he tries to transmit. (That's a very real problem on an overtaxed trunking system).

[hutchins]

We do where I'm at. The only time I ever heard it was when it was accidentialy pushed by one of our officers. It scared the hell out of me since I work dispatch. It was loud as hell and gave me a headache for the rest of my 12 hour shift.

[RO56]

Personally, it's not like a screaming Officer doesn't shut everyone on the channel up... I don't quite see the point to the 'E' buttons.

How are you gonna scream when you've been shot in the throat? With the orange emergency button, you can hit it and keep on fighting the bad guy, instead of worrying about getting and holding a channel grant AND tell them that some 300# dude is kicking your ***.

[Robb]

The department I am an explorer in has that feature on their radios. Before I joined one of the other less ... intelligent... members accidentally pressed the button. Uh oh :rolleyes:

[WhiteLite]

Our portables do have an emergency button, but our old commandstar console isn't updated as to who has what radio, so you tend to have to guess or know from experiance which officer has that particular radio. It does lock the channel, sets off a very loud alarm, and keys the channel every second which pretty much prevents anyone else from keying up. We do have the ability to silence the alarm from dispatch in order to regain control of the radio.

That being said, the emergency button is an absolute necessity for the reasons previously mentioned by several. Sometimes the officer can't call out for help. The alarm may be deafening, and it surely is annoying, but that's the whole point! If it wasn't annoying, you might be tempted to ignore it. 'nuff said.

:D

[Wombat311]

We have almost that exact same model radio. The terminals in the car have an emergency button which works fine and immediately pops up on the dispatcher's screen (and every unit that has an MDT!) and since the cars have GPS, the dispatcher knows where we are. Problem is, they call you three or four times before sending anyone to you.

The portables don't have GPS and the emrgency button opens up the air for 10 seconds so you can push the button, fight and scream all at once. Since they are digital, they can also tell which radio is transmitting and which station it's from. From there, if they look they can tell who transmitted, depending how many units a particular station has on. They are throwing around the idea of putting the capability on the portables to have some sort of GPS as well, so I hear.

[james13f]

[QUOTE=LA5150;684838]

I don't quite see the point to the 'E' buttons.[QUOTE]

Because sometimes we're unable to talk on the radio when we need help.

For instance, the button is useful when you're wrestling a PCP suspect, and can't spare more than a moment to hit the switch to get the troops rolling towards you.

Gotcha, that makes a lot of sense.

I guess I've just never seen a E-button hit turn out real, and Officers are rarely on calls when they hit it (typically getting in or out of the car seems to be the popular time).

[MDEMT280]

Gotcha, that makes a lot of sense.

I guess I've just never seen a E-button hit turn out real, and Officers are rarely on calls when they hit it (typically getting in or out of the car seems to be the popular time).

Of course, an emergency button activation from an officer 2 minutes after he just marked on the scene of a burglary in progress or something would probably trigger a slightly different response than one from an officer who's just out on road patrol and not assigned to a call.

Like in Wombat's system, we call the unit once (or more) if there's an emergency button activation without voice. But I think the number of calls before sending out an "officer needs help" drops if we know the unit is already in a hostile/dangerous situation. Still, I'd rather get out one good "HELP!" than press the button, if I had the choice.

[NCPD3200]

I know in our county, all the radios (police, fire and ems) have what we call the "man-down" button, which is what you're all describing. when it's hit and activated, it sends a alarm and signal to our 911 center freezing everything they do until they take action to the alarm. so, basically, they can't ignore it. also, when anyone hits that "man-down" button, it leaves the mic open on the air for 20 ( i believe ) seconds so the person can anything they need to say out without holding onto a button.

[TheOrteganator]

We have them, and one day I inquired about them with our dispatchers because they had never been explained to me. The response I got:

"You guys have emergency buttons? Do they work?"

So we asked our head of communications. Only to find out that the system was not set up. Good to know they take advantage of these wonderful little features.

Do we have the capability? Yes.

Are they set up? No.