Hampden County (MA) Springfield

Springfield PD

Listen to Springfield PD Here

Springfied PD Channel 1

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

Each shift is given a number. 1 is the Overnight 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.
• 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 21 - Sexual Assault
• Signal 29 - Suspicious Person

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.