Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Monday, May 28, 2007

HAY RIVER - How would you feel if people eavesdropped on you while you work?

Police officers in the NWT have to live with that reality because some people - just how many is impossible to know - keep a close ear to radio scanners.

On May 15, News/North asked Const. Brad Parker of the Hay River RCMP what he thinks about being scanned.

News/North: First of all, are radio scanners legal?

Const. Brad Parker: There is no territorial law to say that scanners are not legal in the Northwest Territories.

N/N: What do police officers think of scanners and the fact that you're being listened to?

B.P.: It's something that's always in the back of our minds whenever we're using radio transmissions between police officers, or members and our dispatch out of Yellowknife, or even with our detachment. It's kind of a double-edged sword in some ways. It's a love-hate kind of thing, because we hate to know that they're there and people are monitoring our transmissions. There is good to it, as well. It helps us get anonymous information.

N/N: Do people hear you talk about certain things and call in with information?

B.P.: Let's say we have a new member in Hay River who isn't familiar with certain vehicles or certain areas of town. If they get a call to look for, say, a certain vehicle that was doing something suspicious, they might radio back and forth with another member saying, "I can't find it. Where was it last seen?" or "I don't know where that part of town is." We've had people phone the detachment and say, "The vehicle you guys are looking for is over here."

N/N: Do scanners ever interfere with investigations?

B.P.: They could. I'm not really familiar with anything like that, where anybody has had interference from it.

The only way I could see it interfere is if somebody being malicious or wanting to cause public mischief would phone in and give us false information anonymously to try to steer us in a different direction. Generally, most of the time we do get accurate information.

N/N: What do you do if there is information you don't want on the radio?

B.P.: A lot of time we use secure land lines, not even using cordless phones. Generally, if there's something going on that we're going to be doing as an operation, whether it be a search warrant or something like that, it's generally dealt with in a detachment meeting, a type of enclosed environment. We'll all get together and formulate a plan on something and go from there.

N/N: If someone calls in with a complaint, can that person tell dispatch to keep his or her name off the air?

B.P.:Yes. Dispatch will either tell us to give them a call or it will be forwarded to us electronically in an e-mail or through the filing system that we have.

N/N: Do you believe that some people listen to radio scanners just as a hobby?

B.P.: It's almost like a recreational form of entertainment for them. Some people sit and watch TV. I think back to when I was younger. My grandfather in southern Manitoba had one for years. For him, it was like listening to the radio. And he'd listen to transmissions between police and fire personnel and ambulance personnel. That was entertainment to him.

N/N: Do police talk in code - 10-whatever and all that - because of scanners or is it just shorthand?

B.P.: I think the codes were developed because of scanners. What we refer to as the 10-codes, I'm not sure how long it's been in the RCMP itself, but I know scanners have been around for quite a while.

It's obviously our form of just trying to keep as much information as possible confidential.

N/N: Are police officers always aware there may be someone listening or do you just get used to it?

B.P.: We always know there's always a scanner on somewhere. It's always in the back of our minds that there are always ears out there.