Police switch to new frequencies: but for now, can’t say what they are

Last Wednesday East Central Dispatch Center, which dispatches police and fire for Brentwood, Maplewood, Richmond Heights and other departments switched over to an 800 megahertz frequency communication system.

Brentwood Chief of Police Dan Fitzgerald said by email that ECDC switched to the new system for police departments last week; fire will change over this week.

Previously Brentwood and Richmond Heights were on the ECDC North channel: frequency 154.800. Maplewood police and fire was on the South channel: 159.900.

Maplewood Police Sgt. Matt Nighbor said the change is an improvement. “In the past there was some sort of difficulty hearing because the frequency. We could be on a portable in one location in a building and we couldn’t be heard. So now that’s alleviated that problem,” he said.

St. Louis County Sgt. Brian Schellman said someone who now wants to listen to dispatches, as has been possible in the past with a scanner, would need a radio with TRUNK capabilities. Fitzgerald said a scanner that is compatible with 800MHz frequencies would be needed. Currently, neither Brentwood or Maplewood police departments could say what the frequencies are.

“We are trying to determine the exact numbers,” Fitzgerald said. Maplewood Lt. Mark Griffin said even the dispatchers don’t know the frequencies because it’s all so brand new.

Griffin said he was led to believe that scrambling could be an option, “So not everybody and their brother can listen to everything, say, and commit crimes, if they choose to do so. It’s all so brand new, we’ve only had it for a couple days, so I don’t know.”

Griffin said it might be vastly different with different frequencies. “It’s a strange radio system. It’s something that we’ve never experienced before.”