Police communications

Yes, detectives generally carry radios at all times, at least where I work. They are not required to monitor the radio during their off times but it seems that they generally do when they're home and awake. Beyond the radio, they all carry either cellphones or pagers and are required to carry them at all times. With the exception of scheduled vacations, they must be contactable (is that a word?!) 24/7.

Again, this is just where I work...but the officers do simply talk to each other over the radio. If the conversation is going to be lengthy, they switch to a private channel so they don't tie up the regular channel. But most of them have cellphones too, so it's easy to just call each other if they want to keep something off the radio. Keep in mind, when I say a private channel, it's just one that dispatch can't hear, scanners can still pick it up unless it's encrypted (we use an 800 mhz system, there are a lot of systems out there in use). In the case of some radios (mostly low band, which is not in use too much anymore) an officer on one side of the county might not be able to hear an officer on the other side of the county, and then they would have to ask dispatch to relay information.

Perks, feel free to PM me if you want me to clarify anything.

Verr different w/ diff depts.
Mine (smallish, 350 + sworn officers, 500+ employess total) det did not carry radio at all times. One is mounted in the car and they have a portable, but no, they did not eat lunch w/ it, walk around the building w/ the portable unless they were expecting immediate radio traffic. All det have pagers but not all carried them. There are assigned call-outs and those who are also on a response team (EOD, negotiator, CIRT/SWAT) have assigned call-out times when they carried the pager.
Typically, det (in depts w/ a det division of at least a few dozen dets) do not carry portables *on* at all times, though they will have access to one. Except for the vice unit, most det time is spent inside the station.

An ofc can contact another via main channel radio, then switch to to a side channel so the main is clear for dispatching and emergent communications, via cell ph, or via computer in car.

Horseshoes said:

Mine (smallish, 350 + sworn officers, 500+ employess total) det did not carry radio at all times.

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LOL. Sorry...I love that you call it "smallish". Our county sheriff department has 16 road deputies and 2 detectives! Most of the city departments I deal with have less than 5 sworn officers total.

So yes, it definitely differs from department to department.

Horseshoes said:

Verr different w/ diff depts.
Mine (smallish, 350 + sworn officers, 500+ employess total) det did not carry radio at all times.

Click to expand...

I worked in a similar sized department. Any officer or detective had a hand held at all times while on duty, and it was always on except when deliberately turned off for a specific reason. (Interviewing suspects, court, plainclothes assignments where attention wasn't desired, etc.)

I worked for a mid-size department, i.e. ~500 sworn officers/detectives etc. We had a verra verra nice radio system that not only had multiple channels for districts, it also had special channels for events, such as parades or emergencies (came in VERY useful post-Katrina, because the radio system was the only way to stay in contact since all of the cell phones were non-operational.) It also had a feature where you could "i-call" another officer by punching in their radio number. Most importantly, the radio had a bright orange emergency button on the top of the radio, and if it was pressed the channel would lock open for thirty seconds, and an alarm would go off at dispatch. Came in VERY useful if an officer was in deep trouble and couldn't pull the radio and give the emergency signal.

So yes, the detectives almost always carried a radio. However, I do have to say that almost all of them used cell phones for private conversations.