"The
vehicle is traveling in excess of 100 miles per hour westbound Roscoe
passing Louise."
These hoodlums must have failed history class for if they had paid
attention in class they would have known that crime does not pay. Like
Bonnie and Clyde, this couples career in crime came to its logical end
with both in the custody of the law.
NOTE: This audio recording
has deleted segments of silence and has also compressed the original
digital audio to provide a semblance of the original audio with minimum
degradation of the original audio sample. In other words, this is not an
accurate representation LAPD radio quality, but close enough for
entertainment purposes.
After leading police on a short vehicle
pursuit with speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour on surface streets,
the couple 'foot bailed' near the intersection of MASON ST and ROSCOE BLVD
in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. A Los Angeles Police Department
(LAPD) helicopter unit quickly routed trailing ground units into strategic
positions in order to cut off any chance of escape.
The radio traffic starts off on the LAPD
Hollywood primary frequency where the crime took place and then switched
to the Van Nuys primary frequency after ground units were called off,
leaving the helicopter to 'track' the suspect vehicle. The idea is that
the criminal will either slow down and/or stop because he thinks he
successfully evaded police when in fact the air unit has an eye on them
and ground units are paralleling the 'terminated pursuit'. This has two
benefits assuming the fleeing suspect cooperates by taking the bait and
slowing down or stopping, it reduces the risk of a tragic high speed
collision and it will bring the incident to a quicker conclusion. It's
bewildering that these folks think they can outrun the speed of a radio
transmission, but then again their choice of careers explains that.
While listening to this audio clip you
will notice that the air unit is much louder than ground units. While I
can't speculate on how this affects the radio dispatchers or officers on
the ground, it is quite noticeable to folks listening on a radio scanner.
This audio clip was recorded from a Uniden BC250D radio scanner at a
location outside of Los Angeles.
During this audio clip you will hear the helicopter observer referring to "SHOP xxx". Each LAPD vehicle has a number painted on its roof denoting it's vehicle maintenance shop serial number. A helicopter observer can clearly see these numbers and will contact units on the ground by referring to their shop number. Other non-radio types of communication are also noticeable in this audio clip, for example you will hear the helicopter observer refer to officers on foot that are signaling them with their flashlights. The use of Forward Looking Infra-Red (FLIR) is also mentioned in this audio clip when the helicopter observer informs ground units that he sees a 'hot spot'. LAPD helicopters also have intelligent moving maps that displays a street map of Los Angeles and gives their location as well as the location of a selected incident. These moving maps also calculate the helicopters position and speed relative to the target location allowing the pilots to give a near exact estimated time of arrival on scene. At an opportune time during this incident a radio dispatcher had the units switch from the Van Nuys primary frequency to a tactical frequency so that other calls could continue to be handled on the primary frequency. Much of the logistical details were not included in this audio clip because many of the 'behind the scenes' communications are done on a simplex frequency for ground units and on 'sneaker net' or land line for command communications. What we hear over our radio scanners is only a slight peek through a keyhole and as such should only be used for entertainment purposes. Outstanding job LAPD Air 16!
"Officer
Matthew Pavelka proudly served his country as a member of the United
States Air Force and earned meritorious and outstanding achievement
awards. He was hired as a police recruit by the Burbank Police
Department on August 5th 2002 and was graduated from the Ventura County
Sheriffs Academy on January 31st 2003.
On November 15th 2003 Officer Pavelka
answered Officer Gregory Campbell's call for backup with courage and
valor. The men and women of the Burbank Police Department are forever
grateful and proud to have served with Officer Matthew Pavelka and will
never forget his ultimate sacrifice. Officer Pavelka is survived by his
parents Michael and Sue and his brother Nick.
One of the two suspects entered a home and held a woman hostage. The woman escaped and informed
police of her ordeal. At the end of the day both suspects had been caught.