What does this red button do?...Oh...oops

[SomeBloke]

If memory serves me what happened here, was the suspect (a homeless person) was arguing/fighting with the nearby construction workers. The first officers showed up, and during a struggle to detain the suspect, the Panic button on the top of an officer's radio got pushed. This immediately alerts all police in the area, and gives a GPS location to the control room.

The officers in Hi-Vis are British transport police, the ones in black vests/white shirts are Metropolitan Police.


Mind you, I'd feel fairly happy that I had that much help nearby if I was in trouble.

 

[mdlighting]

Wow do they use mini bars on all of their vehicles? Those edge bars were pretty nice. And I love that if I'm in trouble at work I've got 5 more patrols 4 supervisors and a bunch of federal agents ( protective services and OIG) coming ready to go all I have to do is push a button ( then give my unit number location and they all jus show up

 

[SomeBloke]

Wow do they use mini bars on all of their vehicles? Those edge bars were pretty nice. And I love that if I'm in trouble at work I've got 5 more patrols 4 supervisors and a bunch of federal agents ( protective services and OIG) coming ready to go all I have to do is push a button ( then give my unit number location and they all jus show up

The Astras in the video are somewhat dated now, they're "beat cars" designed to respond to crimes, but not get into chases etc. This means cheapo mini-bars and HLF.


British Transport Police tend to have some pretty nice/updated stuff.


Now figure this out;


The Met with it's 33,367 Officers (For Greater London) and massive £2.5 Billion budget gets cheapo cars and equipment.


British Transport Police with it's 2,835 Officers (Nationwide) and £187.7 Million Budget, gets the gucci gear.

 

[Zoe]

We have panic buttons on our county-wide system... but so many dummy cops push them by accident, there is no sense of urgency anymore.


Usually 5-10 min of trying to raise the officer on the radio... and then *maybe* have another unit go and check "on their radio."


Now a lot of departments are just disabling the buttons.

 

[emtanderson51]

I think the guys narrating are hysterical....

 

[Alboy29]

We have panic buttons on our county-wide system... but so many dummy cops push them by accident, there is no sense of urgency anymore.

Usually 5-10 min of trying to raise the officer on the radio... and then *maybe* have another unit go and check "on their radio."


Now a lot of departments are just disabling the buttons.

NY Had the same problem, they used to be pushed all the time on accident, especially on the Motorola's it was Directly under the Transmit button. Caused confusion so it was disabled rather quickly.

 

[hoj1192]

This is probably a dumb question but whats the difference between british transport police and metropolitan police

 

[SomeBloke]

This is probably a dumb question but whats the difference between british transport police and metropolitan police

BTP is nationwide and deals with crimes on the railways, underground and stations. They do get involved in normal response but mainly they are at stations or move between them.


The Met is London's big police force. They cover nearly all of London except a 2.6 square mile area known as the City of London, where City of London police is responsible.


They are all based in London and they often go "off patch" to give each other a hand now and then.

 

[poornamechoice]

The Sepura radios had the buttons fixed so they could not be easily activated by accident, they need to be held down for greater than 0.7s before they send the alarm signal. They are very interesting as they give about 20 seconds of 'hot mic' which means the radio is open speech without needing to hold down the PTT button, usually it is full of profanities "get on the f****ng floor/have a bit of this/ow my eyes what the hell is in that" which is exactly what you do not want played out in court. Still go off in error from time to time (leaning on desks is a good one) which you still get the hot mic time and instead the swearwords are replaced with the latest in car gossip.


BTP do get some nicer kit but it is worth noting they are virtually non existant outside of London, they forever beg and plead with us to deal with problems on the railway due to the lack of staff/distances they have to travel. Also worth saying they are not paid for by the Home Office and get there money from the railway companies. BTP are pretty helpful though if we do arrest someone for something railway related they pick up the pieces afterwards without any complaint. All of the officers have the same legal powers across the country (changed in about 2002).


Mini bars rule, we have a mix of minis (twin rotator) and full length LED bars...from using both I don't think they make a massive difference and they give that vintage feel.

 

[chief1562]

Ok now that all the "coppers" are here lets go rob the other end of down.

 

[SomeBloke]

Mini bars rule, we have a mix of minis (twin rotator) and full length LED bars...from using both I don't think they make a massive difference and they give that vintage feel.

Aha! West Midlands Police isn't it.

 

[vonirkinshtine]

I love the feeling when the cavalry shows up!

 

[lafd55]

Here the emergency button is met with 2 calls from dispatch, and then a long tone from dispatch, if that doesn't work then they might send a car their way. Dispatch is never worried about a button being pressed, they just hate all the bells and whistles that go off in communications.

 

[foxtrot5]

Here the emergency button is met with 2 calls from dispatch, and then a long tone from dispatch, if that doesn't work then they might send a car their way. Dispatch is never worried about a button being pressed, they just hate all the bells and whistles that go off in communications.

I guess it varies agency by agency. One agency I worked for had specific policies in place, including how to alert to a high priority assistance needed call without tipping anyone else off. An open mic or unanswered call from dispatch following an alarm activation brought in just about everyone until further notice.

 

[firefighter31]

when i was on the fire dept I use to be on. their radios had an orange button and it got pushed one day on a house fire. Dispatch sent out a panic tone and allerted ics of the badge number that activated and did an accountability check.

 

[Kbonk15]

We just got a new Project 25 phase II radio system in my county and the radios now have a Red panic button thankfully they are sunk into the radio so it is difficult to accidentally push the button thankfully. Unfortunately we have a lot of EMS people who like to push the red button "to see what it does" this is what causes problems. A police officer was jumped a few weeks back and pushed the red button this opens the mic for 30 seconds, the screen on every radio on the system flashes red the police officers identifier is sent to dispatch along with the GPS location and then dispatch confirms there is a problem and sends cars to the officers location.

 

[proudfirefighter]

Never pressed it, but when I was in training, I was told the red button on our radios shut out all the other radios- gave me a direct line to dispatch, over ruled any other transmissions.


Thankfully I've never had to (and hopefully never will be) in a position where I need to press that little red button..


Although, this thread has me curious now.. :squint:

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

Cannot find the first part as a video clip...




http://youtu.be/ldTjXFlWtkM

 

[RL1]

A panic alarm here will get you called by radio. After 3 calls without a response, they hold the air and everyone goes code 3 until you are another unit can advise.

 

[zacmtz7]

Our panic buttons, automatically get tones on every law enforcement frequency in our county, Marshal, Sheriff, Local PD's and constable. Everyone runs hot to the officers location. Hence the rarity of having panic buttons pressed. I had to press mine once (hard enough to remember to press that tiny button) when I was fighting a basketball player that was speaking in tongues and within a matter of second to minutes I had almost 25 officers, all the way to the fire chief there for assistance. The senior dispatcher (20 years) said in her 20 years that is the only time she can think the panic button was used in a legitimate situation and was warranted.

 

[Rofocowboy84]

/have a bit of this/

I think I'll say that the next time I OC someone, just sounds more proper, lol...


One of the few things that they did right at this new prison was option the radios out with a man down feature. If the radio's past a certain angle from vertical for more than like three seconds, it will set off a warning alarm, and if you don't stand it up within 5 seconds, it will send a "man down" alarm to Control. It's supposed to be for if you're on the ground with a convict and don't have a chance to hit your orange button (which they also have). Luckily, it hasn't been used for real yet, but I hear the initial warning alarm going off all of the time, because it seems nobody remembers to straighten them up when they sit down. On the other hand, the way this place was built, it will take about 10 minutes for anyone to get there. Every door has an intercom button that transmits to one of two computer at Control, where the officer has to select the door and then open it. The system gets backed up during normal operations, much less when you're trying to get somewhere fast along with 30 other people at 30 different doors...