Scanner Disconnect

“Sorry, we can’t give you that information…”

May 3rd, 2009 at 2:27 am by Barrett Andrews under News

When we hear garbled information on the scanner and don’t know exactly what might be going on where, we used to have a number to call for Toledo Police and Toledo Fire.

We would get information like the nature of the call (a shooting or pedestrian struck, for example), the cross-street (we may hear “Lagrange” but not hear “Austin Street”), or if it’s actually newsworthy (depending on if crews were canceled en route or if a detective’s on the way).

Not today.

We heard the code for dead body, a report that “children heard fighting,” and a fire crew asking dispatch to “keep police coming.”

Was it all the same call? We don’t know. When we called the number that connects us to the non-emergency number, we were told neither TPD nor TFD could release information to us anymore.

When I asked the supervisor why, she explained that it was because of layoffs and subsequent reassignments. I called the mayor’s spokesperson, who called Toledo police chief Mike Navarre, who, in turn, called me.

“That is a service we can no longer provide,” he told me.

So what’s my beef? This is a pretty minor change, all things considered, right?

Not in my eyes.

The dispatchers weren’t told to hang up on us if they were too busy to talk (which is what other jurisdictions do); I would understand that. They were told not to release information. Any information. Nothing gets to the media.

The problem is, we cannot legally broadcast scanner reports – and, ethically, it’s dangerous because we can’t always guarantee we heard the details right or we’re only listening to one call.

So we used to call those numbers to confirm, say, a shooter is on the loose or a road is closed – information we immediately pass along to you for your safety. As of today, we can’t get those sort of details confirmed in a reasonable amount of time.

In addition to that, these same dispatchers are the ones who are told to call us in the event cops need help finding a missing person or want other information broadcast. Will they still be able to take the time to call us with information the department wants released? I have a feeling they will.

The fact that a 30 second phone call has become too much of a burden for the Toledo police and fire communications bureau creates two worries in my mind: either this is going to be quite a dangerous situation for the entire city, or they think this is a great reason to keep the media out of the loop.

Either way, it’s putting your safety at an even greater risk.