Albuquerque and Bernalillo County Public Safety

US > New Mexico > Bernalillo (County) [Albuquerque]

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	Albuquerque and Bernalillo County Public Safety Albuquerque & Bernalillo County Law Enforcement & Fire Depts	Public Safety	101	Windows Media Player Real Player iTunes Winamp HTML5 Web Player Flash Web Player Static URL ($$)		Online

Feed Notes

City of Albuquerque and Bernalillo County Police, Sheriff, and Fire

Visit our brand new site ABQScanner.com

This feed monitors the shared City of Albuquerque / Bernalillo County trunked radio system, a multi-site, simulcast EDACS system.

This is a mixed mode system with most of the talkgroups operating in Provoice. AFD and BCFD dispatches are analog as are a small number of APD and BCSO calls.  The feed is being broadcast with dedicated hardware from a dedicated computer.  Alpha tags are shown when using an appropriate player or app.

If you are experiencing issues listening to the feed and feel the need to file a problem report, please include an email address if you'd like to be contacted regarding your issue.

**  To ensure the best possible audio, the feed computer, scanner and modem are rebooted weekly (usually on Monday or Tuesday).  **

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Listen on your mobile device with these excellent apps:

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              Albuquerque Fire Department

• AFD Alarm / Intercom
• AFD Tac 1 - Tac 9 *
• EMS 1  - EMS 4 *

AFD dispatches fire and rescue calls using the Medical Priority Dispatch / Advanced Medical Priority Dispatch system.

 

 

            Bernalillo County Fire Department

• BCFD Fire Control / Intercom
• BCFD East Tac, West Tac, North Tac, South Tac *

BCFD does NOT use MPDS codes.  Incidents are described in plain English with a response code assigned.

 

 

 

            New Mexico State Police

• District 5 - Albuquerque

 

 

 

 

* To better follow larger incidents, these channels are monitored at a higher priority than the standard dispatch channels.

Also monitored on this feed: NM Statewide Mutual Aid, NM Statewide SAR.

Other channels/talkgroups/agencies may be patched in on an as needed basis when conditions warrant and as allowed by the terms of service.  During major incidents, the feed may be locked to the channel(s) in use for that incident.

APD Area Command Map
Major cross streets and Zip codes

Albuquerque Crime Map

Daily MDC Bookings

APD and BCSO Beats KMZ file for Google Earth

     from https://www.cabq.gov/gis
Daily Police Incidents KML file
     from https://data.cabq.gov/publicsafety/policeincidents/

Traffic Cameras and Road Conditions
Albuquerque Weather Conditions

New Mexico Search and Rescue Council
     Key Ham Repeaters Map
     SAR Frequencies

Social Media
@ABQPOLICE Twitter Account
APD Facebook Account
City of Albuquerque Social Media Directory

Local Media
KOAT
KOB-TV
KRQE
Albuquerque Journal

• 10-1 Receiving Poorly
• 10-2 Receiving Well
• 10-3 Stop Transmitting
• 10-4 Ok / Understood
• 10-5 Relay Message
• 10-6 Busy
• 10-7 Out Of Service / Deceased
• 10-8 In Service
• 10-9 Repeat
• 10-10 Periodic Watch
• 10-10-0 Welfare Check
• 10-11 Animal Call
• 10-12 Check MVD
• 10-13 Weather Check
• 10-14 Escort
• 10-15 Domestic Fight
  • 15-1  Domestic Stand By
• 10-16 Prisoner
• 10-17 Pickup / Deliver Items
• 10-18 Drunk
• 10-19 Return To
• 10-20 Location
• 10-21 Telephone
• 10-22 Blood Tech
• 10-23 Sex Offense
• 10-24 Traffic
• 10-25 Contact
• 10-26 Check Auto Registration
• 10-27 Investigation
• 27-0 Forgery
  • 27-1 Homicide
  • 27-2 Rape
  • 27-3 Robbery
  • 27-4 Aggravated Assault Battery
  • 27-5 Burglary
  • 27-6 Theft
  • 27-7 Auto Theft
  • 27-8  Shooting
  • 27-9 Stabbing
• 10-28 Missing Person
• 10-29 Wanted Person
• 10-30 Juvenile
• 10-31 Suspicious
• 10-32 Fight
• 10-33 Fire Call
• 10-34 Officer
• 10-35 Prowler
• 10-36 Time
• 10-37 Shoplifting
• 10-38 Vandalism
• 10-39 Disturbance
  • 39-1 Loud Music
  • 39-2 Loud Party
  • 39-3 Shots Fired
  • 39-4 Aggravated Driver
  • 39-5 Panhandlers
• 10-40 Mental Patient
• 10-41 Neighbor
• 10-42 Request Dispatch Times
• 10-43 Rescue Call
  • 43-1 Suicide
• 10-44 Traffic Accident No Injuries
• 10-45 Traffic Accident w/ Injuries
• 10-46 Tow Truck / Wrecker
• 10-47 Drunk Driver
• 10-48 Use Caution
• 10-49 Any Traffic
• 10-50 No Traffic
• 10-51 Message for Delivery
• 10-52 Audible Alarm
• 10-53 Silent Alarm
• 10-54 Traffic Stop
• 10-55 Ambulance Call
• 10-56 Arrive at Scene
• 10-57 Narcotics
• 10-58 Dead Body
• 10-59 Bomb Threat
• 10-60 Coffee Break
• 10-61 Lunch Break
• 10-62 Log On / Off Duty
  • 62-1 Chiefs Overtime
• 10-64 Field Investigator
• 10-65 Kidnap / Abduction
• 10-66 Nature Break
• 10-70 Chemical Spill
• 10-74 Tactical Plan
• 10-75 Miscellaneous Out Code
• 10-76 SWAT call
• 10-80 Demonstration
• 10-81 Civil Disturbance
• 10-82 Back Up Cover
• 10-83 Officer in Trouble
• 10-88 True Alarm
• 10-89 False Alarm
• 10-90 Vehicle Maintenance
• 10-91 Vehicle Fuel
• 10-92 Court
• 10-99 Officer Held Hostage

Suspect Description codes:

A 3 letter code is used to provide very quick and generalized person descriptions.  It is usually suffixed with additional descriptive parameters such as height, weight/body type (thin, heavyset, etc.), clothing, hair, tattoos or other identifying marks, etc.

First Letter - Race/Ethnicity	Second Letter - Gender	Third Letter - Age
W = White B = Black S = Hispanic I = Indian/Native American	M = Male F = Female	A = Adult J = Juvenile

AFD/BCFD Response Level Codes:

• Alpha - Low Priority Response / Non life threatening.  Typical examples would be a general non specific sick call with no complicating factors, citizen assist calls, smoke investigation.
• Bravo - Mid priority Response / Non threatening but intervention needed.  Examples would be a car accident with all patients out and ambulatory, minor animal bites, intoxicated persons, small outside fires, alarm investigation w/ no confirmed fire.
• Charlie - Possible Threat to life or property. Examples would be diabetic episodes, sudden onset of severe pain, significant bleeding, sick calls with patient cardiac/stroke history, narcotics overdose, heavy smoke investigation.
• Delta - Immediate threat to life or property. Examples would be serious vehicle accidents w/ injuries, pedestrian/cyclist/motorcycle vs vehicle, shooting, stabbing, cardiac episodes, unconsciousness, ineffective breathing, confirmed structure fires, large outside fires.
• Echo - Imminent threat to life.  Examples would be cardiac arrest, not currently breathing, CPR in progress, AED deployment, structure/vehicle fires with occupants trapped, water rescues.
• Omega - Low priority with other resources dispatched.  Situations where other resources are more appropriate than a fire or rescue response.

Albuquerque is divided up into six distinct geographic zones called Area Commands.  The area commands are further divided into patrol areas called beats.

The number suffix of the units call sign indicates their area of assignment.  The first number is their area command, the second and third numbers would be the assigned patrol beat.  

For example, a unit with a suffix of 234 would be a Valley Area Command unit patrolling the area bounded by I-40 to the north, I-25 to the east, Lomas Blvd to the south, and 3rd St to the west.

Units are of course not limited to their area command or assigned patrol beat and can be called upon to assist anywhere in the city as call volumes and priorities dictate.

• 1xx - Southwest Area Command
• 2xx - Valley Area Command
• 3xx - Southeast Area Command
• 4xx - Northeast Area Command
• 5xx - Foothills Area Command
• 6xx - Northwest Area Command
• 71x - SWAT Team 1
• 72x - SWAT Team 2
• 73x - Mounted Unit
• 74x - DWI
• 75x - K9
• 76x - Traffic
• 77x - Traffic
• 79x - Bomb Squad
• 8xx - SID
• 9xx - CID
• 15xx - Open Space
• 154x - Prisoner Transport

APD operates two air units.  Air 1 is a Eurocopter EC120B.  They also operate a Cessna 182 for longer duration missions.

BCSO operates Metro 1, a Eurocopter AS350 B3. They also operate a UH1 that can be equipped for aerial firefighting operations and can be equipped with a rescue basket for retreiving injured hikers and the like.  These capabilites are used frequently, particularly during the summer months when fires and stranded hikers are more common.

Whichever helicopter is up will handle both APD and BCSO calls and is also available to assist other nearby agencies.  They can also talk directly to AFD/BCFD, and you'll hear them frequently providing aerial surveillance of fires or participating in search and rescue operations in the Sandia Mountains.

Code 1 - Non emergency response.  No lights or sirens.

Code 3 - Emergency Response with lights and sirens.

Code 4 - All clear.  Additional units responding can clear.

78 - EMS Quality Assurance Officer.  A paramedic captain who plays a critical role in serious rescue or medical-related situations.  On high profile calls, such as multiple casualty incidents, the QA officer may be dispatched to provide supervision and act as the incident commander.

Code 900 – Status check.  At regular intervals or if an officer has not checked in for a period of time or keys the emergency button on their radio, dispatch will attempt to check in with the officer.  If the dispatcher does not get an all safe reply, additional units will be sent to check on that officer.  Only used by APD, other area agencies just ask for a status/well fare check.

AAS - Albuquerque Ambulance Service.  The contracted ambulance provider for AFD.  Responds with AFD on most rescue calls and handles patient transport duties.  AAS units are referred to as "55" on the radio.

AIQ - Available In Quarters.  Unit is in station and available for assignment.

ALS - Advanced Life Support unit.  A fully equipped rescue unit staffed with paramedics.

AOR - Available On Radio.  Used when a fire/rescue unit is in district and available for assignment but is not yet back in station.

ATL - Attempt to Locate.

BOLO - Be on The Lookout.  A formal bulletin disseminated among area law enforcement agencies containing information on the subject(s) in the bulletin.

CAD - Computer Aided Dispatch. Every call for service is entered into this system and assigned a CAD number.

CP - Calling Party / Command Post.  Dual meaning, when used in the context of a major incident, will refer to the Command Post that has been set up for that incident.

Dog pound - Nickname for the city fueling yard near Lomas and Wyoming.  So named because it's next to the eastside animal shelter.  If you hear a unit reporting they're out at the dog pound, it means they're making a fuel stop.

ETOH - A commonly heard code that you won't find on the MPDS chart.  Etoh is the chemical abbreviation for ethanol and refers to a callout for an intoxicated individual, usually coded as a 23B1.  It's also humorously used as an acronym for Extremely Trashed Or Hammered.

FI – Field Investigator.  Crime scene/evidence techs.  They have a radio code of 10-64 but it is rarely used.

Fire Box - A grid square reference system used by AFD to narrow a call down to a specific area.  Does not appear to be published anywhere, so I'm unable to provide any maps.

Level 0 - Code used by Albuquerque Ambulance Service to indicate that they have no units currently available for calls.

Level 1 Stage - Apparatus should stage one block away in the direction of travel to incident and await assignment.

Level 2 Stage - Apparatus should stage a sufficient distance away to keep the scene from becoming congested.  There will typically be a designated staging area for responding units with a staging officer assigned to manage it.

MATS - Bernalillo County Metropolitan Assessment and Treatment Services, a detox facility on Zuni just east of San Mateo.  An alternative facility to the MDC for otherwise nonviolent drug and alcohol abusers.  Also a frequent destination for E11/R11 as their station is just down the street.

MCI - Mass Casualty Incident.  A low level MCI is 5-25 patients, a high level MCI is 25-100 patients.  A "disaster" incident is more than 100 patients. Declaring an MCI activates a set of protocols that include setting up formal triage, minimum resources assigned, triggering automatic mutual aid responses, and putting area hospitals on alert.

MDC - Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center, The main detention facility serving the metro area. Located 20 miles west of downtown. It's the 39th largest jail in the country.

MDT / PDT - Mobile/Portable Data Terminal.  The computers in the vehicles that are tied into the CAD system.  AFD tends to call them MDT's, APD likes to call them PDT's.

NCIC - National Crime Information Center.

PAR - Personnel Accountability Report.  Radio reports that are periodically requested by command during a fire incident to ensure that each crew is intact and all crew members are accounted for.

PSA - Police Service Aide. Civilian employees that assist officers on patrol with traffic accidents, traffic control, minor misdemeanors, taking reports, paperwork and other administrative duties, freeing up patrol officers to handle higher priority calls for service.

PTC - Prisoner Transport Center.  A holding facility downtown where arrested individuals are brought for transfer to the MDC via dedicated transport vans.  Avoids officers having to make the long trip to the MDC for prisoner transport.  On busy nights, it often fills up, and you'll hear the dispatchers advise that the PTC is 10-7 (out of service).  In that case, officers will drive them directly to the MDC or to an area substation.

Radio Standby - A fallback radio only operating mode and procedures if there's an issue with the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems.

RIT - Rapid Intervention Team.  A go-team of firefighters at the ready to assist other firefighters in distress.  They are not involved in normal fire fighting duties, but are staged in full gear ready to enter the fire structure if needed.

RP – Responsible Party.

RTC/RTCC - Real Time Crime Center.  An information hub and data clearinghouse that is able to provide intel to officers in real time as they are responding to a call.

Signal 7 - Stolen vehicle.

TIC - Thermal Imaging Camera.  You'll sometimes hear this asked for on fire calls.  Used to check for additional fire spread within walls.  Can also be used to sweep a scene to detect the heat signatures of potential undisocvered victims.

Q: The audio sounds distorted or garbled.

A:  This is what a Provoice radio system sounds like.  What you are hearing is highly compressed digital audio.  It's clear enough to be understandable, but the quality is not going to blow you away.  You're hearing it basically how it sounds in the field.  The transmissions either come through or they completely fall apart.  That's the nature of digital audio, there's no graceful falloff like analog audio.  

The upsides to this system are efficient use of bandwidth, no static, and almost complete lack of background noise.  The downside is somewhat poor audio quality, even in a best case scenario.  There are also numerous radio dead zones across the area, particularly with county units in the more rural parts and APD units operating close to the mountains.

 

Q: Why can't I hear [insert agency here]?

A:  The county trunked radio system is quite busy, so I carefully pick and choose what to broadcast to maximize available airtime.  Some channels may violate the Feed Provider Terms of Service and cannot be broadcast.  A particular agency may not be on the county radio system.  If there is something not on the feed you would like to hear, feel free to contact me about it and I will explore the possibility of adding it or even starting a new feed if it's appropriate and something I'm able to receive from my location within the Albuquerque metro area.  It's also entirely possible I may have goofed and locked out a legitimate talkgroup by accident.

 

Q:  I'm not seeing any alpha tags

A:  You'll need to be using an external player like Winamp, MPC, foobar2000, itunes, etc. to see them, you will not see them with the Broadcastify web player.  Most mobile listening apps also support the tags.  If you're using a supported player and still not seeing them, it's probably a problem on my end that needs to be fixed.

 

Q: There's no audio!

A:  Sometimes stuff breaks.  Software and computers freeze or crash, a cable gets accidently unplugged, my cat jumped on something important, etc.  One time, my derpy dog got tangled up in a cable and pulled the entire computer off the desk in her frantic attempt to escape.  From time to time there will also be brief outages to install any needed software updates or equipment updates.  I usually try to inform listeners in advance of any planned outage with feed status messages and Twitter updates.

All of you fine listeners are pretty good at informing me of any problems and I can usually address them fairly quickly, typically remotely if the problem is just software related.  Sometimes it will take a bit longer if it is hardware related and I'm not around to address it right away.