nc5p wrote:The main reason the kid in KY was hassled is because he was holding himself out to be an "offical" and had a "badge" heavy wanna-be cop attitude and the real "officals" charged him with impersonating a public officer/employee. Just because one has a radio/license and plays around does not give one authority to show up on a scene of a disaster and start "assuming" command. This is why one should get training and certification from recognized entities (APCO, FEMA, state accrediting boards, etc) and be a part of a recognized program like RACES or Red Cross. With the proper training, one can be a great help. Without it, they can be a hinderance and find themselves in handcuffs.
The kid was a volunteer with the Christian County civil defense/tornado spotters group. He had an ID card they issued and that was what they charged him with in impersonating a public official, in addition to the scanner law charges. Kentucky has one of the worst records for harrassing amateur radio operators. Only New York, Indiana, and Michigan are as bad. Minnesota is almost as bad, but worse in the city of Waterville.
I cannot speak for his attitude, but when a young person shows such public service interest to volunteer with civil defense it is a shame to destroy his future the way they did. He might have otherwise grown up to be a law enforcement officer, firefighter, or other public safety official. Now, even if he wanted to, his criminal arrest record will prevent that. I doubt seriously if he will ever want anything to do with serving the public.
Doug
NC5P
Doug, not to start a flame war, but I am familiar with the case. First off, the ID card was not issued by a government agency. Anyone can buy an Eltron printer and print ID's, using them in a manner to hold yourself out as a trained and certified incident commander will get you what it got him.
The law in most states is very clear. for example, in GA, OCGA 16-10-23 states that anyone who "holds himself out to be a public officer or employee when he/she is not commits the offense of impersonating a public officer/employee". Pretty clear, if you don't work for a gov't agency or are an appointed/elected officer, you are an impersonator and you get 5 years (felony) in the big house.
Alot of well-meaning hams who honeslty have no intention but to help out become a hinderance. And quite frankly such as the young man in KY learned, you have NO BUSINESS on the scene of a disaster or other indcident unless you are TRAINED, CERTIFIED and APPROVED to be on that scene by the indcident command staff. I suggest those who desire to assist public safety go through the proper channels. Take some courses such as FEMA's EMI classes. Learn what ICS is. Start a RACES group, which unlike ARES which is a part of a private organization (ARRL), RACES is only activated by the county which declares the emergency and directly serves the county in which it exists. If you have the right training, you will know where to be and where not to be. You will follow ICS and know what to do.
the reason we require persons to be trained and certified is so that we don't have persons just showing up at the firehouse and not knowing what to do. I am sure the kid meant well, but he destroyed his own future by breaking the law. Just because one has good intentions just showing up on the scene and appointing yourself some authority flies in the face of convention of the incident command structure, not to mention a threat to public safety where some untrained, uncertfied individual takes it upon themselves to start "running the show" henceforth why he was arrested and charged. Especially in these times, only trained, certfied and vested people need to be on a scene.
Bottom line is if one isn't trained/certfied by an offical county,city, state or federal agency, you need to backoff and let the professionals handle it. Having a radio and some good intentions can create many more problems than it is worth. If you are serious about serving the public in a professional capacity, then go get the training and go through proper channels. If not, stay home and listen to it on your scanner.
) The only problem is...I have a father who remains nervous and against it. The seller claims that there are no freqs. presently programmed, and the only ones that the railroad comms. technician will do are of course RX only. I live in the state of Oregon where it is not illegal to posess a scanner/receiver operating in the vehicle. All I need at this point is reassurance from several of you to my father that it is NOT illegal to have a Motorola transceiver with receive-only frequencies programmed to each channel.
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