Don't Believe Everything You Hear

The police and fire scanner in our Newsroom is an integral tool for the job we do--allowing us to monitor emergency situations throughout the listening area.  Owning a scanner used to be a rarity.  There were always a few people around town that might purchase one for their homes or have one of those old school multi-band radios that would allow you to tune in one of the emergency frequencies like you tune in your favorite music station.  But the internet has brought websites and smart-phone apps that stream scanner feeds for free--and almost anyone can monitor police and fire calls in their homes, at work and even in the car.

But not everyone grasps the nuances of live police and fire dispatch activity.  And that was borne out this week as rumors of a school shooting here in Oshkosh spread like wildfire on the internet.  Oshkosh Police, the Winnebago County Sheriff's Department and our newsroom were receiving calls from people that "heard" police were dealing with a shooting at a bank on Emmers Lane and that the gunman was at Oakwood School.  Posts to that effect were shared on social media pages--including some that monitor scanners and post what people hear in real time. 

Mixed in with the angry responses about guns and the "thoughts and prayers" posts were a few level-headed comments about how nothing about this was being broadcast on local media outlets.  As you might expect, hearing a call about a shooting at a school or a bank would certainly warrant immediate coverage not just by those of us at WOSH but most of the Green Bay television stations--which also monitor scanner activity throughout the Fox Valley.  But the big difference between those of us in the "traditional media"--and those who think they "break news" in the "new media" (or "citizen journalists") is that we go out to make sure something is actually going on.

And that was the case on Monday afternoon--as my reporter Morgan Schultz, after getting calls from people saying they "heard it on the scanner", called me to take a quick run out to the "scene of the crime" to confirm what those people thought they heard.  As it turned out, it was a normal day in the Oakwood neighborhood.  Further "scanner traffic" about the "shooting" came across on the Training Frequency used by Winnebago County law enforcement and emergency personnel for just such a situation.  But if you are listening on a scanner app--or reading posts on a Facebook page--you likely wouldn't know that.  And yet, rumors continued for so long that Oshkosh Police finally had to issue a press release on their own social media sites reminding everyone that it was a training exercise taking place up at FVTC in Appleton--not even in Oshkosh.

If you are a scanner afficianado, take some advice from a long-time professional listener: people who report things to police get it wrong--a lot.  In my time here, I've criss-crossed parts of Winnebago County looking for the "plane that the caller believed crashed in a field by their house" during EAA.  Or waited for dive teams to be dispatched to spots on the ice that the "caller thinks a car went through because the lights disappeared".  And I've talked to plenty of officers responding to "shots fired" that turned out to be fireworks.

The next time you see on the internet a post about something heard on the scanner, consider if the person providing that information left their house to confirm that--and if they plan to issue a "correction" when it turns out to be a misunderstanding.