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Los Angeles County (CA) Sheriffs Department

From The RadioReference Wiki

This article contains information on the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Information on other agencies in Los Angeles County can be located on it's article.

Much of the information in the article is courtesy of Southern California Frequency Directory which is an excellent resource and their work is much appreciated. Please consider purchasing their products to help support an excellent parallel resource to Radio Reference.

Overview

The following explanation is an excerpt directly from the Southern California Frequency Directory:

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department operates a conventional radio system referred to as the "480 System" within the department, because of the frequencies it occupies. The system uses over sixty repeater sites around the county, most of which are on hilltops, to relay communications. The hilltops from which a particular repeater transmits from is dependant upon the area that channel was intended to cover. Communications on a particular channel will sound the best when monitoring from within or near the area that the personnel assigned to that channel patrol.

With the exception of Special Units Dispatch (which has countywide coverage), Dispatch and Local Tactical channels each have the smallest area of intended coverage. As a result, a listener must be relatively closer to a particular dispatch area to hear communications on that channel clearly. Conversely, Area Tactical and Countywide Tactical channels each are intended to cover the territory of several or all of the dispatch channels combined. As a result, listeners can hear communications on any given Area Tactical and Countywide Tactical channels from further reaches of the county than corresponding Local Tactical or Dispatch channels. While these repeater configurations provide varying degrees of expanded coverage on a particular channel, personnel may bypass the repeaters and use simplex on any channel, commonly referred to as "direct", "talk-around", or "car to car" operation.

The Sheriff's Communications Center (SCC) is located in East Los Angeles near the Biscaluze Jail, and dispatchers all incidents countywide. To assist SCC in confirming who is transmitting, each time a deputy presses the transmit button on his radio the radio transmits a unique identifier (called a "G-Star AID", "burp", or "burst" encoder, or more commonly a "turkey call"). The unique IDs are displayed on the SCC dispatcher's screen. When a radio's emergency trigger (also called "E-Trigger" or man down switch.) is activated, the radio switches to the emergency channel and transmits the Radio ID five times.

Each sheriff's station has a Dispatch channel and a Local Tactical channel, each of which may be permanently shared with one or more other stations depending on the volume of station radio activity. Nearly all incidents and communications begin on a Dispatch channel. Local Tactical (or 'L-TAC') channels are used by units to communicate directly with one or more other unit from the same station without tying up the Dispatch channel. Area Tactical (or "A-TAC") channels are used to coordinate significant incidents requiring the participating of units from more than one station. Incidents or events that require countywide coordination use a Countywide Tactical (or 'C-TAC') channel. Each of five Mutual Aid channels covers a different part of the county and allows sheriff's units to coordinate with neighboring municipal police departments when one agency is assisting another.

Unit Designators

Phonetic Description
A Adam 2nd Car in Geographical Area
B Boy Bike or Boat Team
C Charlie Captain
D David Station Desk
E Edward or Eddie Extra Unit in Designated Area
G George Gang Unit
H Henry Overlap or Mounted Unit
I Ida Area Commander
K King One Man Car (Often Trainee in last month of training)
L Lincoln Station Lieutenant/Watch Commander
M Mary Motorcycle Unit
N Nora COPS Team or Night Detectives
R Robert Reserve Unit
S Sam Sergeant
T Tom Traffic Car
V Victor Civilian Volunteer
Administration
01 Sheriff
02 UnderSheriff
1I Duty Commander
East Los Angeles (2)
21 North of Cesar Chavez Av
22 South of Chavez west of 710
23 East LA 710 Fwy to Atlantic
24 East LA East of Atlantic
25 East LA Extra Unit
27-29 Commerce Contract
Lennox (3)
31 Vermont Area
32 Lennox/Del Aire 32A- Del Aire
34 Gardena/Torrance County areas
35 Lawndale
Norwalk (4)
43 Norwalk North of Rosecrans
45 Norwalk South of Rosecrans
46 La Mirada
48 South/East Whittier
49 East Whittier
Temple (5)
51 East Pasadena/North San Gabriel
52 Temple City Contract
53 Rosemead
54 South San Gabriel
55 South El Monte
57 Monrovia/Arcadia county areas
58 Duarte
Santa Clarita (6)
61 Canyon Country
62 Newhall/South Valencia
63 Sand Canyon/East Canyon Country
64 North Valencia
65 East End County Areas
66 Castaic/Stevenson Ranch/Del Aire/Valencia County Areas
67 East County Areas
67K9 Gorman Resident Deputy
68K9 Gorman Resident Deputy
60H Boat units
Altadena (7)
71 West
72 Central
73 East
San Dimas (8)
81 San Dimas Contract
86 County areas West of Grand Av
87 County areas East of Grand Av
88 San Gabriel Mountain Units
West Hollywood (9)
91 East of Fairfax
92 Fairfax to La Cienega
93 West of La Cienega
94 Special Problems Unit (SPU)
95 Universal Studios Substation Units
96 COPS Team
Malibu Substation (10)
101 East of Malibu Cyn Rd
103 County Areas/Topanga Cyn
104 West of Malibu Cyn. Rd.
109A Aero Unit
Lancaster (11)
110 UNKNOWN USE
111 City Contract
112 City Contract Anyone Know the dividing lines?
113 Quartz Hill/West County Areas
114 Lake Los Angeles/East County Areas
119A Aero Unit
Crescenta Valley (12)
121 La Canada-Flintridge
122 La Crescenta
123 Dexter-Lopez Canyon/ San Gabriel Mountains
Lakewood (13)
132 Lakewood Contract
133 Bellflower
134 Artesia
135 Hawaiian Gardens
136 Paramount
138 Volunteers
Skynight Dedicated Aero Unit Lakewood/Cerritos Stations
Industry (14)
141 Industry Contract
142 West Valinda/Bassett
143 La Puente
144 Valinda/East Valinda
145 La Habra Heights
147 Hacienda Heights
Pico (15)
151 Pico Rivera Contract
152 West Whittier
154 COPS Team/Whittier Blvd Cruising Team
Carson (16)
163 West County areas
164 North and West of Cal State Campus
165 University to 213th St
166 East End
167 City Southwest
168 City Southeast
169 Rancho Dominguez
Lomita (17)
171 Lomita Contract
172 Rolling Hills Estates
173 Rancho Palos Verdes
174 Rancho Palos Verdes
175 Rolling Hills
Avalon (18)
184 Avalon Contract
185 Two Harbors Units
187 Catalina SAR units/Baywatch when needed
Century (21)
210 Special Units
212 Lynwood
213 Willowbrook
214 County areas west of Central/North of Rosecrans
216 Firestone area north of Florence Ave.
217 Firestone area south of Florence Ave.
218 Special units
219 Special units
Lost Hills (22)
222 Agoura Hills
224 Calabasas
225 County Areas
226 Westlake Village
Cerritos (23)
231 West
232 Central
233 East
234 East
235 Mall Area
Skyknight Aero Unit
Special Enforcement Bureau (24)
Palmdale (26)
260 UNKNOWN USE
261 West End
262 West End
263 Near East End
264 Far East End
265 Little Rock/Pearblossom/Valyermo
266 Acton
267 Resident Deputy/Lake Hughes/Green Valley/
Marina Del Rey (27)
271 Marina
271B Boat
272 Marina
273 Windsor Hills/View Park/Ladera Heights
274 Windsor Hills/View Park/Ladera Heights
277 Special Units
Compton (28)
281 Northwest City
282 Northeast City
283 Southwest City
284 Southwest City
285 East Rancho Dominguez
287 West county end county area South of Rosecrans
Walnut (29)
291 Walnut City Contract
292 Diamond Bar
293 Rowland Heights
294 Rowland Heights
Prisoner Transport (50-59)
Transit Services Bureau (60-69)
Adam Vehicle Patrol (Applicable to rail units)
Frank Foot Patrol
Frank/Edward Civilian Fare Inspectors
601 Blue Line Long Beach
602 Blue Line Carson/Compton
603 Blue Line South Central LA
604 Blue Line Downtown LA
605 7th/Figueroa Station
606 Green Line West End
607 Green Line Central
608 Green Line East
611 Metrolink North County
612 Metrolink East County
614 Metrolink East County to San Bernardino
616 Metrolink East County to San Bernardino
641 Red Line Downtown
642 Red Line west of Downtown
643 Red Line Hollywood
644 Red Line Hollywood
645 Red Line Valley
651 Gold Line Downtown
652 Gold Line Highland Park
653 Gold Line South Pas/Pasadena
654 Gold Line Pasadena
681 Buses San Gabriel Valley-El Monte Terminal
682 Buses San Gabriel Valley
683 Buses Southeast county
684 Buses Southeast county
685 Buses South of Downtown
686 Torrance Transit contract
687 Buses West county
688 Buses San Fernando Valley
689 Buses Downtown and adjoining areas
690 Special Units
Tactical Response (7xx)
7xx Tactical Platoon (Digits 2 & 3 indicate Station Identifier
705 would be Temple Station Tactical Platoon
Station Detectives (8xx)
8xx Station Detective (Digits 2&3 indicate Station Identifier
827 would be Marina Del Ray Detective
Community College Bureau (85-89)
871 City College
872 East LA College
873 Trade Tech
874 South West College
875 Valley College
876 Mission College

Related Links

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