All Keyed Up: Your Portable Radio is Your Most Important Lifeline to Other Cops, But Only if You Use it Wisely and Well

• NCJ Number: 205583
• Journal: Police: The Law Enforcement Magazine Volume: 28 Issue: 5 Dated: May 2004 Pages: 50-53
• Author(s): Dean Scoville
• Date Published: May 2004
• Length: 4 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article offers tips to police officers on the effective use of portable police radios.

Abstract

Historically, police officers were tied to their patrol cars in order to monitor the radio for calls for help. With the advent of portable police radios, officers could come out of their cars and still provide timely broadcasts regarding police business. These portable police radios, however, do have their limitations. Technical difficulties are described that include garbled messages, dropped words, and dropped signals. Police officers should always carry back-up communications, such as cell phones, to get around the technical problems that can plague portable radios. Another problem inherent to the use of portable police radios lies in the emoting of an officer when calling for help. When car radios were the only means of communication, officers tended to put in requests for back-up before being engaged in a dangerous situation. With portable radios, officers tend to wait longer to request back-up, resulting in the use of strong emotions when requesting help. By over-dramatizing the situation as a result of a panicky voice, police situations can quickly get out of hand. Another consideration when using portable police radios is the choice of words used by officers. Agencies retain police radio transmissions for set lengths of time for use in court; inappropriate comments made over police radios could damage the reputation of officers and their agencies. Additionally, information transmitted over portable police radios can be picked up by the public, so care should be taken with revealing confidential or upsetting information over radios. Guidelines are offered for good radio communications, such as using plain English when transmitting messages and developing a tactical, assertive manner for radio communications. In short, a portable radio is only as good as the officer using it.