By Liam Ford
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — Chicago police and emergency dispatch officials are investigating an apparently unauthorized “inappropriate transmission on a police frequency” in which a dispatcher on a Far South Side police radio zone was twice interrupted by someone using profanity and a racial slur.
The radio transmissions occurred at 8:25 a.m. Sunday on Zone 9, a channel that serves the Calumet and Morgan Park police districts, according to archived traffic provided by Broadcastify.com. They were made by at least one male, possibly two, while a dispatcher was speaking to an officer.
A spokeswoman for the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications said in an email that an “unauthorized user” appears to have made the interrupting transmission.
“We have reviewed the audio for this incident and we do not believe that the comments were made through the use of a City-programmed radio as the audio in question lacks identifying characteristics of an official police radio,” said OEMC spokeswoman Melissa Stratton, in an email.
The OEMC is working with police, and has not yet identified the person who made the transmission, Stratton said.
“The statements made are absolutely unacceptable,” police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in an email Monday afternoon, adding that Police interim Superintendent John Escalante “has ordered an immediate internal affairs investigation into this incident.
“Should the investigation reveal that a member of the Police Department made the statements, he will be immediately suspended and disciplinary proceedings will be launched,” Guglielmi said in the statement.
In the radio traffic, a dispatcher is trying to get a police unit to respond. When an officer replies, apparently mistakenly, she replies, “No, boo, it’s too early to be bothering you. Good morning.”
“Yeah, good morning,” the officer replies.
Another officer chimes in saying, “How many boyfriends you have?”
“Why are you all in my Kool-Aid? Why you over here?” the dispatcher replies, apparently because that officer was assigned to a different police zone.
A male voice then interjects: ”Typical f---in’ n-----s.”
Another male voice says, “Say that again,” and there is some crosstalk.
The dispatcher responds, “All right, you know, OK,” apparently taken aback.
One of the officers the dispatcher originally was speaking to responds, “Find out what radio that comment came from.”
The dispatcher says, “You know, we don’t get radio numbers, but I’m already hollerin’ for my supervisor.”
There is a little more back and forth, then a man’s voice, possibly adopting an accent, says: “All black lives matter, man. F---in’ n-----s.”
Although police frequencies are legally restricted to official traffic, the police department and the city’s Office of Emergency Communications have at times had to deal with people, including security guards, making unauthorized transmissions on police radio.
In March 2015, for example, a security guard at Kennedy-King College was arrested after using a police-band radio to call in a foot chase involving a suspect in a criminal damage to property incident.
Copyright 2016 the Chicago Tribune