Neighbors....

[wisco]

So last weekend we had a "show".

The wife and I are watching tv Friday night when we hear a lot of yelling outside. We look out the front windows to find 2 guys having a brawl in the middle of the street. No idea what it was about.

Eventually the fight ended and they stood there screaming at eachother for a while before heading into a house. We had our police scanner on because the noise was so loud we were certain someone would have already called the cops - and indeed they had.

The police show up and the folks in question pull the classic move of running inside and shutting off all the lights. The officers were pounding on doors and windows stating that they weren't leaving until they made sure everyone was ok.

Finally someone came out after about 20 minutes who was the main aggressor. He was eventually arrested... from the chatter on the radio it appeared to be some family dispute.


Then last night we're on our front porch having some beers with another couple and enjoying the nice weather when that same arrestee comes marching by - in his underwear. He starts screaming at the house and throwing everything he can find at it - cans, bottles, his cell phone, etc.

Police show up again, you know the rest.


I have no idea who lives in that house. This is a pretty normal middle class neighborhood and we really don't see that kind of stuff. Even so, it was pretty entertaining watching the guy drunkenly try to explain why he had no clothes on.

Cheap drinks and a free show, what more could one ask for on a Friday night?

[MikeG]

Was it Joey's sig that called LE front row seats to the greatest show on earth?

[retdetsgt]

Was it Joey's sig that called LE front row seats to the greatest show on earth?

Only when it's not in your neighborhood.....

The last place I lived was on a cul de sac and the woman living across it from us was a loser. Nice house, but it belonged to her mom who apparently had some bucks. Her daughter however, was a loser with three kids who were borderline out of control and it didn't help she moved a new boyfriend in every couple of months or so. I never told her (or anyone else there) what I did for a living, but about the third time I had a problem with one of her kids, i went into my Frankenstein mode and they all avoided me after that. We moved out just about the time the oldest girl was about 14 and becoming a major pain.

[MikeG]

Only when it's not in your neighborhood.....

Yeah, that would get old quick.

phoenix has a lot of suburbs each with their own police force. I found it odd that a lot of officers don't live in the city they work and prefer to commute. One of the reasons they give is that running into the show's "performers" both on-duty and off-duty is not as entertaining as just seeing them on-duty.

[retdetsgt]

phoenix has a lot of suburbs each with their own police force. I found it odd that a lot of officers don't live in the city they work and prefer to commute. One of the reasons they give is that running into the show's "performers" both on-duty and off-duty is not as entertaining as just seeing them on-duty.

That's exactly why I didn't live in the city. I lived in the unincorporated area for a long time until Portland annexed it, then I sold the house and to the other side of the city in a suburban town. Unlike some, I never felt it important to announce to everyone I met what I did for a living, including my neighbors. It was easy because I never had a marked take home car in my life and our detective cars (when I had a take home) aren't the same make and model of our patrol vehicles. In fact, they aren't even full size cars so that never gave a clue. When asked (which was rare), I told them I worked for the city and I don't recall anyone ever asking me what I did there.

That way if there was a problem, I could easily choose to be a spectator rather than have someone knocking on my door.

I did run into people I had dealt with on duty on rare occasion, but they were always more afraid of me than I was of them. They were the ones who remembered there was someplace else they needed to be in a hurry.

[Safety Steve]

I guess people down here are just more nosy. Telling people I work for the state is not enough for them. They come back with, "Just exactly what do you do for the state?"

Were allowed to live within 30 miles of our assigned duty station. I see violators quite often but fortunately for me they do not recognize me out of uniform. I don't look anything like Woody out of uniform! lol



Be Safe.

[retdetsgt]

I guess people down here are just more nosy. Telling people I work for the state is not enough for them. They come back with, "Just exactly what do you do for the state?"

You have a point. People down there are friendlier than they are up here, seriously. Texans are more apt to engage in more intimate conversation than Oregonians. Here, it's pretty superficial.

[S-99]

Why do you have a scanner in your house?

[SANE-A30]

Why do you have a scanner in your house?

I grew up with a scanner in my house...just b/c....

one night i was home alone and my CRAZY PSYCHO neighbor and his wife was fighting she was screaming her head off there was at least five gun shots so I called the cops..the deputy said he had 15 calls for that same residence within the hour.....needless to say we have had no trouble since the guy is a real wacko he threatened to shoot my dog once b/c she was stuck in the fence between our properties....needless to say he got told off that day by little Ms sunshine herself now he glares at me across the fence....

[wisco]

Why do you have a scanner in your house?

Why not?

[SANE-A30]

Why not?

I'm not really sure why my parents chose to have one but I remember every night my mom would turn it on, not sure what ever happened to theirs either after awhile my mom learned what some of the codes was and most scanners come with a book to help you distinguish the codes I think?? I was really little but i'm pretty sure she had a book

[retdetsgt]

They used to sell them here, but after we changed radio systems in the late 80's, they disappeared off the shelves. I don't know enough about that stuff to know if that was the reason or not. They're not illegal, but I haven't seen one in decades.

I suspect it would be pretty dull now since most calls are CAD, not voice.

[MikeG]

They used to sell them here, but after we changed radio systems in the late 80's, they disappeared off the shelves. I don't know enough about that stuff to know if that was the reason or not. They're not illegal, but I haven't seen one in decades.

I suspect it would be pretty dull now since most calls are CAD, not voice.

The MDC and digital radios have made it more problematic. The good stuff is encrypted on the newer systems. The really good stuff is over the phone. Trunking and talk groups means that frequencies and use can constantly be changing. One day your dialed into the police, the next day it's the city water department. Theoretically these changes can be made automatically based on conditions (i.e. night vs day, rain vs. shine, etc) to give emergency services the best channels but I don't think a lot of depts do this.

My pet peeve (and it may be a lack of understanding) is the number of bands and the legacy crap involved. The are consolidating people to "APCO Project 25". Yet to do this, they created a radio that is capable of working over 4 different frequency bands with many protocols and standards. They make it operable with the previous systems. This makes the radio very expensive. The goal is to make it operable between all Emergency services in a region. It allows deparmtents to stay with their current system and move when they have the money. What would make more sense is to assign a single band to an entire region and give them a much cheaper radio (with all the same features). Do everyone at once. the radio companies won't like it as much but the taxpayers and police will (smaller, lighter radios).

Let's put it this way: the cell phone radio and features have everything police want/need. Change the form factor, better antenna and larger RF transmit power (less than $100) and they have everything they need to implement a digital trunking system. The current police radio is 10x-15x the cost of a cell phone (maybe more). If the armorers looked at firearms the way the government looks at Project-25, there would be a single firearm that shoots, .38, .40, 9mm, and .45 cal rounds. It would be 10x the cost (and as cumbersome as 4 weapons duct taped together) and departments would get grants to move to the new interoperable standard gun. Colt would build it to mil-spec and sell it. The selling point is departments in the region don't have to change ammo as they move to the new weapon system and everyones guns are interoperable now. Show this to an accountant and they realize that the largest department could buy a standard COTS weapon for themselves and everyone around them and it would be cheaper than buying the government standard and it would be interoperable just as they originally intended and could be implemented much quicker with all the features of the latest APCO radios. They built a swiss army radio and all the tools are a different form of "knife." They should drop the legacy requirements and put that money into migrating legacy equipment to newer standards. Okay, rant off.

[retdetsgt]

The Portland area just put in a new police radio system and as usual, it's a nightmare. Every time the city puts in any kind of new computer based system, it's always over priced, never works right and they never recover the money they lost. I need to get a job selling them this stuff, I'd be rich and there'd be no repercussion from selling them a white elephant.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/i...5/post_85.html

I'm not going to copy and paste the whole article, but it gives you an idea of what my old department is facing because our commissioners are morons.

[Norm357]

See, that's why I live 53 miles from the city.