On Sun, 23 Mar 2008 17:39:35 GMT, You
wrote:

In article
,
John Szalay
wrote:

"J" wrote in

:

If you live in Kansas be careful about
listening to a police scanner.

In Lansing, Kansas a state prison employee
lost much of what he owned
because he listened to a Radio Shack police
scanner.

According to a police report, Joe Howerd, a
Communications Technician
at the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing (
Lansing Correctional
Facility LCF ) came to work one day and told
his supervisor, Captain
Jeff Munsterman that he bought a police
scanner from prison employee
Mike Bellar and while playing with it he
picked up his next door
neighbor Roberta Copp talking on her cordless
phone.



FWIW:::::
First, I am NOT a lawyer, but have used
scanners for years, one thing I
have learned,
ITS illegal under federal Law to reveal to a
third party, anything you
hear on a scanner OR any radio capabile of
receiving certian
transmission types.. this includes public
safety radio, IE:
Police,fire,EMS etc:

and its illegal to receive/listen to mobile
telephone at all of any
type. other than your own . much less tell
someone else what you hear..

So use your radios with caution and reveal to
NO-ONE anything you have
heard at any time..

these laws go back to 1934 with the
Communiations Act of 1934
and futher with the ECPA law of 1986

Learn the law and respect it...

Retired
Firefighter.....



http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18..._I_20_119.html

Well Hmmmmm, Just a NOTE here, as far as I know,
there has NEVER been
a Federal Prosecution for a Violation of Section
705 of the
Communications Act of 1934, as Amended, for
revealing content of a
Radio Communications Transmission. I am a reTired
Resident Field Agent
for the Federal Communications Commission. There
HAVE been prosecutions
under other Federal Statues, (ECPA of 1986) for
revealing Communication
content. The BIGGIE, was the Florida Couple who
overheard Newt Gingrich
and another Congresscritter's Cellphone
conversation, recorded it, and
gave it to Rep. Jim McDermett (D) of Washington
State, who then LEAKED
it to the Press. The Florida Couple WERE
convicted, McDermett WAS
Prosecuted, and his case Went to SCOTUS, who
REFUSED to hear his APPEAL,
which left him with a GIANT BlackEye, and a Hefty
Judgement to pay the
Congresscritter for violation of his Privacy.


The only prosecutions I have ever known of on the
state level have been when someone has used a
police scanner to interfere with an investigation
or with emergency personnel, such as the time some
idiot hereabouts would race EMS to accident
scenes. If anything, I think the story is one of
piling on, charging someone with every
conceiveable violation in an attempt to intimidate
a troublesome individual or to guarantee a
conviction on *something* in order to justify some
otherwise shaky police work.
~db~®