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Difference between revisions of "Broward County (FL)"

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=== Police Services ===
 
=== Police Services ===
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Interoperability is provided by the zone 14 talkgroups, 14A through 14O (14 Oscar). These talkgroups may be used for special events, coordination between police departments during chases or investigations, and on those occasions as a backup when a jurisdiction has trouble with its own trunked system, as happens far too frequently with the Fort Lauderdale trunked radio system.
  
 
== External Links ==
 
== External Links ==

Revision as of 15:35, 16 May 2009

Broward County, FL

Public Safety

Map bso.jpg

Overview

Broward County, Florida provides fire and rescue as well as police services to unincorporated areas of the county and by contract to several municipalities.

As part of an effort to unify the various and sundry pieces under one umbrella, former Sheriff Ken Jenne took over police services for municipalities such as Pompano Beach, Deerfield Beach, and Tamarac. BSO (Broward Sheriff's Office) also provides dispatch and communications services for even more jurisdictions that have their own police departments.

He also took over the county Department of Fire Rescue in October 2003 when all operational and administrative responsibilities were transferred from the Broward County Board of County Commissioners to the Broward Sheriff's Office. As with police services, several jurisdictions contract for fire and rescue services from Broward County rather than maintaining their own fleet and employees.

This overlap can be confusing to the newcomer trying to monitor public safety communications in Broward. BSO law enforcement covers roughly 40% of the populated area of Broward County, but dispatches about 60% of it. Of the remainder, most have their own radio systems, some of which are zones of the Broward SmartZone trunked system. There are a few conventional systems still in use, as well.

Who Is Where

Notes

1 - TRS = trunked radio system; BC TRS = Broward County TRS

2 - Although Broward County subsumed other trunked systems into its SmartZone plan, for the purposes of the scanner enthusiast you should program each Broward County TRS site as a separate trunked system into your scanner. This will have to be done manually, as the automated web service of RadioReference will glom all talkgroups into the same system on your scanner and you will not hear what you expect to hear. For example, Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach will be heard on the Fort Lauderdale system, which is known as site 4 of the Broward County trunked radio system. However, if you program Fort Lauderdale or Pompano talkgroups into your scanner on Broward's main site 1, you won't hear anything.

Fire and EMS

On large incidents requiring mutual aid from other departments, the Zone 12 talkgroups might be used or patched over to the primary fireground talkgroup. Sometimes 12B is used for training exercises and other 12 zone talkgroups are used for coordinating special events. Also 12 Oscar often has law enforcement traffic on it, even the zone 14 talkgroups are set aside for that use.

[Wikipedia:Broward County Uniform Station Numbering] lists fire stations in Broward County, including municipalities.

Police Services

Interoperability is provided by the zone 14 talkgroups, 14A through 14O (14 Oscar). These talkgroups may be used for special events, coordination between police departments during chases or investigations, and on those occasions as a backup when a jurisdiction has trouble with its own trunked system, as happens far too frequently with the Fort Lauderdale trunked radio system.

External Links