Listening in on the police radio? Shhhh, don't tell anyone.

Sometimes it's fun to browse the laws to see what the lawmakers say we can't do.  Here's an example from days gone by.

It is said that the one invention that benefited law enforcement more than any other was the two-way radio.  In the days of Bonnie and Clyde a pair of bank robbers could hit a bank then hit the road in a fast car and leave the cops far behind.  That can still happen, but with the ability to radio ahead the escape could be made a bit more difficult.

When the police radio came into usage the police no doubt were very possessive of that technology.  If the bad guys/gals listened in then the radio wasn't as useful.

So we find on the books a half century old law that prohibited listening and telling.  Here's one in the Midland, Texas, municipal code.

Title VI, Chapter 1, Section 9.
Police radio; interception of communications.
No solicitor, or other person, not being authorized by the City, shall intercept any communication and divulge or publish the existence, contents, substance, purpose, effect or meaning of such intercepted communication, and no solicitor or other person, not being entitled thereto, shall receive or assist in receiving any message emanating through the medium of KKA-662, and use the same or any information therein contained for his own benefit, or for the benefit of another solicitor or person. (Ord. of 3-24-1953)

The FCC archive search yields no information for the call sign KKA-662, so it's probably been dead a long time.  Anyway, it appears to be okay to listen, but don't tell anyone what you heard, and don't use the information to benefit anyone.  It's not clear what the solicitors would do with it, try to sell insurance to burglary victims maybe.  Do you suppose anyone has ever been convicted under this code section?  I have my doubts.

Comments

[Les]

KKA-662 would have been the old VHF license for the PD. I don't remember when Midland PD left the VHF band but it might be that it wasn't until they bought their 800MHz trunked radio system. Midland and Odessa both used such licenses into the 70's. As I recall, the Odessa PD main was KKA-474 and the Odessa FD was KKV-something. Ah, those were the good old days. I wonder if the MRT ever reported incidents heard over the air?

[Geo]

Thanks for that background, Les. I think the current system is about to be outdated, too.

Good point about the MRT. I would suspect that after that code section was enacted all of the local news outlets have at one time or another used information heard on a radio scanner.

[Les]

And ironically my car was burglarized in the parking garage this afternoon and a Uniden Bearcat trunking scanner was taken. I had left a GPS mount stuck to my windshield and I'm sure the GPS was the target. Luckily, the GPS receiver was not in the car. Let me know if you see my scanner on ebay or craigslist...

[Geo]

Les, hopefully you have the serial number recorded somewhere.