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Saturday, March 01, 2003
Fire Department wants to move Knolls station [Source: Ventura County Star; Photo: Freq Of Nature] By Jake Finch  The Ventura County Fire Department is recommending that Station 43 relocate from the unincorporated county area of the Santa Susana Knolls to an area within Simi Valley. About two dozen Knolls residents attended Tuesday's meeting, called by the department to hear what people had to say. It was the second meeting on the issue. "The intent of the December meeting was for us to get input into the concept of moving (the station)," Division Chief Ken Maffei said Wednesday. "There were things (said then) that we hadn't considered, but they weren't things that would incline us to change our mind about relocating the station." The recommendation will be presented to the Ventura County Fire Protection District Board, which is the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, within the next few weeks, Maffei said. The board will make the final decision. If it relocates, the first step will be to find a piece of property to meet the department's needs. More...
2003 Soul Train Awards Radio Frequencies [Source: Robert Eisner] The following are confirmed frequencies for the 2003 Soul Train Awards in Pasadena: 451.8000S PL 179.9 Ushers 456.8000S PL 173.8 Ushers 464.4750S DPL 311 Security 464.5000S DPL 343 Operations Ch. 1 464.5500S DPL 244 Operations Ch. 2 469.5000S DPL 712 Operations Ch. 3 469.5500S DPL 074 Limo Staging Ch. 4 Most of these are the same frequencies and tones that were used for the 2001 Peoples Choice Awards which were also held in Pasadena. Wednesday, February 26, 2003
TV Urged to Curb Car Chase Coverage [Source: Los Angeles Times] By Jill Leovy and Greg Braxton Ratcheting up the pressure on TV news stations in a city transfixed by car chases, Los Angeles' top law enforcement officials made a public appeal to media bosses Wednesday to reduce their coverage of police pursuits. Flanked by Police Chief William J. Bratton and county Sheriff Lee Baca, Mayor James K. Hahn told a news conference that ceaseless coverage of local car chases is dangerous, and incites suspects to flee. He said the broadcasts give incentive to "careless individuals who want their 15 minutes of fame." News executives said their coverage of chases, which has become a staple of Southern California news broadcasts, is measured and responsible. None interviewed said they would agree to scale back the coverage in response to the appeal. Typically, car chases generate big ratings. More...
What is a Fire Buff? [Source: Brian Humphrey, Public Service Officer Los Angeles Fire Department] Firefighters enjoy and appreciate tremendous support from those they serve. There is however, one special group of people who have an affinity and an enduring relationship with Firefighters. They are Buffs, a term applied with respect to those who hold a deep and serious interest in the work of the Fire Service. Buff organizations are nothing new in the United States. The term itself dates back to the days when Fire Department fans donned great *buffalo* skins on cold winter nights as they assisted in pulling the hand drawn pumpers of the early 1800's. In fact, Los Angeles has its own Fire Buff organization: http://www.lafd.org/box15.htm Welcome to the World of Fire Buffing! QUESTION: Have you ever seen your local Fire Engine parked in front of your neighbor's house and wondered what all of the tools were for? Or watched on television as the Fire Department fought a major fire in a warehouse? Now you can learn about all of this and more at a class to be held in Los Angeles, or by networking with Fire Buffs in your region. Those who live outside of Southern California can scroll to the bottom of this message for a link to local contacts. Los Angeles Valley College is offering a one-day class to introduce you to the hobby of FIRE BUFFING, a pastime as old as fire fighting, as exciting as a world-class sporting event. This class will cover equipment, operations; the different parts of Buffing, fire ground etiquette and related organizations. The instructor has been a Fire Buff for over 25 years. He has worked for the Fire Dept. as a Paramedic. He owns and leases antique fire apparatus (including fire engines) as props to the movie industry. Class Number 3246 One Sat 9 AM-1 PM March 1, 2003 Instructor William Raddatz Fee: $26 To Register, Call Valley College: (818) 947-2577 xt. 4172 NOTE: This class is being offered by Valley College and is NOT directly affiliated with the Los Angeles Fire Department or its members. Class information is being offered for your information only, and no agency endorsement or guarantee is expressed or implied. For more information, you can view the complete Spring schedule for Los Angeles Valley College in PDF format: http://www.lavc.edu/Extension/CommunityServicesSP03.pdf Do you live *outside* of Southern California? Those living outside our region can learn more about Fire Buffing in their area by visiting one or more of these informative websites:
FCC Issues Narrowband Mandate Below 512 MHz [Source: Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials] DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 25) The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) finally issued a long-awaited ruling regarding narrowband applications. The Second Report and Order and Second Further Notice of Proposed Rule Making under Docket 99-87, FCC document number 03-34, was adopted on Feb. 12 and released on Feb. 25. Public safety will have until Jan. 1, 2018, (for existing systems) to migrate to 12.5 kHz technology. Business users of spectrum below 512 MHz have a migration deadline of Jan. 1, 2013. More urgently, new applications for frequencies below 512 MHz for bandwidths above 12.5 kHz will not be accepted six months after publication in the Federal Register. The following is an excerpt from paragraph 12: 12. “Specifically, our amended rules will: The FCC also expanded on the equipment-type certification for manufacturers. After Jan. 1, 2005, the FCC will prohibit the certification of new equipment that includes a 25 kHz mode. Equipment certified on previous dates will continue to be available, allowing system users to amortize their investment in existing wideband equipment. The FCC gave public safety an additional five years beyond the migration mandate for business users, recognizing the difficulty in obtaining funding and conversion for the public sector. The move to prevent licensing of new systems or expansion of coverage for modifying existing systems starting in six months will have a major impact on public safety and public safety coordinators. The FCC believes continuing to accept new wideband applications would result in continued and expanded proliferation of wideband technologies counter to their intent. Additions to existing systems, additional frequencies, or new sites will be limited to operation within the interference contour of the existing system. No expansion of coverage area will be allowed using an excess of 12.5 kHz bandwidth.
Post offices listen in on clerks [Source: The Daily Herald] By Todd C. Frankel Watch what you say at the post office. Listening devices recently were installed in the service windows at three post offices in Snohomish County, becoming the only ones in the Northwest and perhaps the nation taking such measures. Postal supervisors say the devices -- off-the-shelf baby monitors -- are intended to ensure that clerks ask the proper security questions of customers mailing packages. Managers can listen in using a receiver in a back office. But the microphones also pick up conversations between clerks and unknowing customers. The monitors are set off to the side, hidden in the mix of stamps, scales and registers near the clerk's desks. No warnings are posted notifying customers that their conversations may be monitored. Postal supervisors insist the conversations, while being listened to, are not being recorded. They say their interest is only in improving customer service. But the postal clerks union says workers feel demeaned by the practice. One top manager who oversees dozens of post offices, including all in Snohomish County, admits he has doubts about the devices -- which he didn't know were being used until Tuesday. The U.S. Postal Service may not be breaking any laws, said a Seattle University criminal law and ethics professor, but there is the question of whether it's the right thing to do. "It smacks a bit of Big Brother, plus overbearing employer-employee relations. But is it criminal? I doubt it," professor John Strait said. The monitors were first quietly installed in November at the Marysville post office, followed by the main Everett post office and the Claremont post office two weeks ago. Each post office had window clerks who failed to ask a crucial question of a customer working undercover for a company contracted to evaluate customer service. Clerks are required to ask people mailing packages whether the box contains anything that is liquid, fragile, perishable or potentially hazardous. This so-called "hazmat question" is required by the Federal Aviation Administration for cargo flying on airliners. The question received additional emphasis with rising terrorism fears in the past year. Marysville postmaster Michael Ferri was faced with the problem of closely watching his clerks while not having enough supervisors to do so. He turned to the baby monitors. "I wanted to find some way to have a presence without having someone standing up there all the time," Ferri said. No customers have complained about the monitors, Ferri said. But as two clerks at the Marysville office pointed out, customers have no idea they are being listened to. "Customers come in and talk to us like bartenders. They tell us all kinds of things. And maybe they don't want people in the back to know," one clerk said. "We feel if we're going to have them, they should be disclosed to the public," another clerk said. Both spoke on the condition that their names not be used. Carl Willmaser, who visited the Marysville post office Tuesday to buy stamps, said he didn't know his just-completed transaction may have been monitored. "They're kind of invading on you," he said. Bill Schwartz, a customer services supervisor at that post office, defended the practice as an effective way to provide the best possible service. He said managers only occasionally listen to the receiver. Everett postmaster Pat Ogle got the idea for using baby monitors from the Marysville postmaster. Two weeks ago, Safety 1st baby monitors were installed at the main post office and the Claremont station. "It's not something that could be considered a threat against employees. It's for safety. And hopefully our employees will realize that," Ogle said. But the local postal clerks union has complained to postal supervisors that the baby monitors are an insult to clerks and do not improve customer service. "They feel like they're being treated like babies," said Linda Esquivel, president of the American Postal Workers Union Cascade Area Local, which represents clerks at 27 post offices. Mike Turner, manager of suburban post office operations from Auburn to Bellingham, said he was surprised to find that postmasters had turned to baby monitors to keep tabs on clerks. Managers have been known to more closely supervise clerks when customer service problems pop up, but never before to this extent. "I'm a little ambivalent about it. I don't know if I would have done it, but I see why," Turner said. Turner promised to review the practice. Strait said he doubted the baby monitors violated either state or federal privacy laws -- as long as recordings were not being made. In Washington state, all parties must consent to the recording of a conversation. On the federal level, only one person must know. But there is no expectation of privacy for a conversation that is overheard but not recorded. Strait suggested, the law aside, that the post office place signs letting customers know that others may be listening to their conversations. He called it a matter of disclosure. "That would be the polite thing to do," he said. "How much trouble can that be?" (c) 2003 The Daily Herald Co. Monday, February 24, 2003
Attention scanner addicts: Gwinnett Web site has live police talk, updated jail docket and a daily crime e-mail [Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution] By Lindsay Jones Lawrenceville resident Cheryl Harkins is curious to know just how safe her neighborhood is. She has checked the GBI's state sex offender registry on occasion to see if any potential predators live near her family. But a new Web site has made checks like these much easier. Now Harkins receives daily e-mails telling what dirty deeds -- from DUI to expired tags to indecent exposure -- her neighbors have been arrested for. Forget good old-fashioned eavesdropping. Keeping tabs on your neighbors is now as easy as clicking a mouse. Thanks to a new community watch feature on a local police-scanner Web site, Gwinnett residents like Harkins can receive daily e-mails alerting them to anyone in their area who has been booked into Gwinnett County jail or added to the GBI's statewide sex offender registry. "You want to keep informed of what's happening in your neighborhood," said Gordon Edwards, the site's creator. "Like if someone on your street had been arrested for burglary, you'd want to know." Edwards started the Web site www.scangwinnett.com, which features a live scanner and local police information, in March. He added the Community Watch section last week. Each night his home computer runs an automated search of the county jail's docket book and the state register of sex offenders to pull out individuals in particular neighborhoods as specified by the site's registered users. Edwards, an admitted radio scanner addict who has been an avid listener for 17 years, runs the site out of his Lawrenceville home as a hobby. He does not require those just wanting to listen to sign up, but to use the new portion of the site, visitors must give a valid e-mail address. Then all they have to do is pick an area to monitor -- as specific as a cul-de-sac or as broad as an entire ZIP code. The next morning, like clockwork, an e-mail arrives listing the name, address and charges, as well as links to a mug shot, of every person in the specified area who was arrested the previous day. Edwards' Web site has more than 300 registered users, and he said an average of 225 people listen to Gwinnett's police and fire scanner via his site every day. Nearly 20 people have signed up for the service in its first week, and Edwards expects that number to steadily climb as word gets out. Harkins signed up for the service Wednesday because she wanted to be aware of any sex offenders in her neighborhood. She received her first e-mail Thursday and has already told several friends about the new program. "I think it's an awesome way to keep in touch with the community and keep my kids safe," Harkins said after she read the first alert e-mail and checked out all the mug shots. "I looked at all the faces so I would be familiar." All of the information provided on the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Web site, including its list of current inmates, is available to the public, though many people may not know it is there. "It looks like what [Edwards] is doing is taking information that is readily available and combining," said Cpl. Dan Huggins, spokesman for Gwinnett County Police. Harkins said she had checked the sex offender registry in the past, but it was not convenient to view often. "Public record usually means you have to work to go get it, but not anymore," she said. Such easy access to information about arrests and charges raises some concerns. "An arrest is supposed to mean freedom from guilt," said Frank Vandall, a privacy law specialist at Emory University's School of Law. "But many regular people don't know that." Vandall said that of the numerous people arrested, many do not go through trial and some are found not guilty; for those individuals, the publication of their name and photo may prove problematic. "My concern is that there will be injury; people will suffer hurt and humiliation and then be found not guilty," he said. These issues, though, should not be enough for the courts to tighten Georgia's public record laws, Vandall said. Edwards said he has received only positive feedback about his site in the past 11 months, and that police and fire officials have "been receptive" to it. The sheriff's Web site even links directly to Edwards' site. "We always like people who want to be involved in what we're doing," Huggins said. "It makes our job a lot easier." © 2003 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |