Hampden County (MA) Springfield
From The RadioReference Wiki
Springfield Police Department
Department Description
The Springfield Police Department is located at 130 Pearl St in Springfield Massachusetts. They also have some substations that house the Youth Aid Bureau at 417 Liberty St, the Internal Affairs Division on Maple St, and the Street Crimes Division which is housed on the Campus of Springfield Technical Community College.
Their website located here has a lot of information about the Department.
Listen to Springfield PD
Shift Structure
For the District, or Radio Cars, there are three shifts per day. Shifts are designated by a number that preceeds the car's assignment. Shift 1 is the Overnight, Shift 2 is the Day Shift, and shift 3 is the evening. For example: 1-Foxtrot-1 would be the Foxtrot 1 car from the overnight shift. Usually, these numbers are only used during shift changes to differntiate the off going and oncoming crews.
Typically, there are three officers assigned to each Car. Each officer is part of a Tour. They work a rotating 4-on-2-off schedule. Tour A and Tour B will work together for two days, then Tour B and Tour C will work together for two days. Finally, Tours A and C will be paired up.
Radio Call Signs
The City is broken into three Distrcits: North, Central, and South. Those Districts are broken into nine Sectors. Each Sector is given a Letter Designation A thru I, or Alpha thur India.
The Sector is then broken into Subsectors that are given a number. For example, Foxtrot-1 would be covering part of the F Sector. Occasionally, there are multiple cars assigned to a subsector. These cars are designated with a trailing letter. For example: Foxtrot-1-Alpha.
The Letter Designations for District Cars are as follows:
- Alpha - North End and Plainfield Section
- Bravo - Area of the Armory St Rotary and Hungry Hill
- Charlie - St. James and St. James and East Springfield Area
- Delta - Indian Orchard Section
- Echo - Downtown and the South End
- Foxtrot - Mason Square Section
- Gulf - Pine Point and Boston Road Section
- Hotel - Forest Park, the "X" and part of East Forest park
- India - East Forest Park and Sixteen Acres
In addition to the Sector Cars, Officers of Rank (Sergeants and Lieutenants) and specially assigned officers also have letter designations to identify them. They are:
- "61" - The designation for the shift's Watch Commander.
- Lima - Lieutenants.
- Sierra - Sergeants.
- November - Narcotics Unit.
- Quebec - Springfield Schools Unit.
- Tango - Traffic Bureau.
- Yankee - Youth Aid Bureau.
- X-Ray - X-Ray units are Officers that are assigned to special details, whether it be Hot Spot Details, Bar jobs,
or road jobs.
- CI - The Criminal Investigation Unit, or Detective Bureau. Sometimes they are still referred to as DB Units.
- K-9 - K-9 Officers.
- SV - The recently created Special Victims Unit.
- SC - Street Crimes Unit, which is dedicated mainly to proactive policing.
Radio Codes
Springfield PD utilizes Plain English in a majority of their radio traffic. Some "Signal Codes" can still be heard from time to time:
- Signal 1 - Man Down
- Signal 3 - Traffic Stop
- Signal 4 - Traffic Accident. An accident with injuries are designated as a "4 and 7"
- Signal 5 - Domestic disturbance
- Signal 6 - Gang Activity
- Signal 7 - Ambulance Call, or used when an Officer requests an Ambulance.
- Signal 8 - Please call
- Signal 10E - Officer in trouble all units respond
- Signal 14 - Report to be taken
- Signal 21 - Sexual Assault
- Signal 22 - Return to station
- Signal 29 - Suspicious Person
- Signal 64 - Supervisor check; Car reports their location and mileage
Also, you will hear units requested frequently to "903" or "908." The number 9 tells an officer to switch to a channel and the trailing number is the requested channel.
Radio Traffic by Channel
All frequencies can be found here
- Channel 1 - This is the Department's primary dispatch channel.
- Channel 2 - This channel belongs to the Records division.
- Channel 3 - Channel 3 is a Repeated Talk Around channel, and backup dispatch channel.
- Channel 4 - Car to Car. This channel is not repeated, and is sometimes used for operating at a scene. You have to
be close to it to actually hear anything.
- Channel 8 - Mainly used by the Street Crimes Division, and Special Victims Unit.
- Channel 11 - Used by the Detective Bureau.
- Channel 13 - Also used by the Detective Bureau.
Springfield Fire Department
Station Locations
- Station 1 - Downtown Sprinfield at the corner of Worthington St and Spring St.
- Station 3 - Oakland St. Ground has been broken for a new station to be located at White St and Vermont St.
- Station 5 - Indian Orchard on Odessa St.
- Station 8 - The Eastern Ave Station near the intersection of Eastern Ave and Wilbraham Rd.
- Station 9 - The new Public Safety Complex located on Carew St.
- Station 10 - The North End station located in the 2800 block of Main St.
- Station 12 - The Sixteen Acres station located on Parker St near the intersection of Parker and Wilbraham.
- Station 16 - The recently reopened Pine Point station located on Massreco St between Bay St and Boston Rd.
- Fire Training Center - Located on Grochmol Ave.
- Fire Alarm HQ - The Fire Alarm Headquarters is located on Roosevelt Ave in the 1500 block. Maintenance and
Dispatch are also housed here.
Apparatus Locations
Pumpers
- Engine 1 - Located downtown at Station 1.
- Engine 3 - Located at the X at Station 3.
- Engine 5 - This Pumper is out of the Indian Orchard Station.
- Engine 8 - Engine 8 runs out of the Eastern Ave Fire Station.
- Engine 9 - This Pumper is housed on Carew St.
- Engine 10 - Since Ladder 10 was put out of service, this is the only piece in the North End Station.
- Engine 12 - The Sixteen Acres Unit.
- Engine 16 - The only piece out of the Massreco St Station.
Ladder Trucks
- Ladder 1 - Housed with Engine 1 downtown.
- Ladder 3 - The oldest in service apparatus in the city. It is due to be retired once the new Station 3 opens.
- Ladder 5 - Ladder 5 runs out of Station 5. It is also dispatched with the Rescue Squad to all extrication calls.
- Ladder 8 - Ladder 8 runs out of the Eastern Ave Station.
- Ladder 9 - Ladder 9 is the newest in service Ladder in the city. It replaced the old Ladder 9 which was a tiller
like Ladder 3.
Additional Units
- Rescue Squad - The Rescue Squad is housed at Station 8 on Eastern Ave. Their backup unit is housed at Station 9.
- Hazmat 1 - Hazmat 1 is housed and staffed by personnel from Station 9.
- Brush 1 - The Deprtment's brush truck, a Humvee, Housed and staffed at Station 12 in Sixteen Acres.
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