Posting unverified information from a police scanner to social media can lead to misinformation, which is why local law enforcement is reminding consumers to be skeptical of social media pages acting as news sources.
Staff Writer Corey Murray, who covers court and emergency services for The Hillsdale Daily News, published “A Mysterious Place Called ‘Scanner Land,’” a piece criticizing social media pages marketed as news sources and defending The Daily News’ reporting, on March 5 in The Daily News.
Local emergency response officials agreed with the opinion article that information broadcasted over scanners is not always accurate since the preliminary content is meant for police, fire, and emergency medical services to have an idea of what to expect when arriving at a scene.
Hillsdale County Police Lt. Phil Parker said many times, police scanner listeners will not hear the complete story because they are not present at the scene, and officials investigating do not always communicate their findings over police scanners afterward.
“Just because law enforcement is sent to a particular incident doesn’t mean once the law enforcement officer gets on scene, handles the incident, clears from the incident, that that’s actually what the incident was,” Parker said.
Murray said unverified information from police scanners in Hillsdale County on social media come from at least two Facebook pages: Hillsdale Watch and Wright-Waldron News.
Hillsdale Watch said it wished to remain anonymous, but Wright-Waldron News’ administrator John Tanner said via email he posts what he hears on the scanners.
“The Wright-Waldron News does not gather information by driving to fires, accident scenes, or other emergencies, nor follows up with fire personnel,” Tanner said.
Posting scanner information onto social media can make misinformation or incomplete information about an incident known almost instantly to a broad audience of followers, which can garble the truth of what actually happened.
“If they hear it on a scanner themselves or somebody is posting that it was on the scanner, they believe it; that’s human nature,” city of Hillsdale Chief of Police Scott Hephner said. “Until you’re there, you can’t know 100 percent what’s correct going over the scanner.”
Posting scanner information in real time can cause an inherent danger for police, Hephner said. It can attract people to fire and accident scenes, which could crowd the area and make it more difficult for police and firefighters to do their job.
“We get there, and our first job is to de-escalate and make everything safe,” Hephner said. “We do that, and all of a sudden, people show up who are angry, mad, and upset, so there’s a safety concern for officers, and it makes it more difficult to keep the situation calmed down.”
In addition to passing on misinformation, Murray said unverified social media posts can mislead.
One Hillsdale Watch post about an “explosion” on the Hillsdale County Fairgrounds caused some local Hillsdale residents to panic after someone used the term over the scanner, Murray said. A transformer had caught fire and was not an immediate threat to the public, but the post caused an unnecessary freakout.
Tanner said for these reasons, he does not go out to emergency response call locations and typically waits to post about incidents until after he hears the scene has cleared.
“Originally, I did post as fires and accidents were still active,” Tanner said. “However, I quickly realized the negative effect of people getting instant notifications and traveling to the scenes, filling the roads, blocking emergency crews from doing their jobs.”
Murray also said in at least one instance, a family learned about a relative’s injury through social media before hearing it from other family members or law enforcement.
This, too, can create problems, Wright-Waldron Assistant EMS Chief Stacie Shamplo said.
“If a family member reads that, a lot of things can go into an uproar,” Shamplo said.
Sharing everything from police scanners can also cause unnecessary suspicion of law enforcement, Parker said. When a call turns out to be false, the county typically does not publish a press release for the information.
If social media pages post something about the incident, however, and law enforcement does not release anything about it, people can think it’s a “monster,” Parker said.
“We’re not hiding anything,” Parker said. “There was nothing; there was no complaint.”
For these reasons, emergency responders tend to try to limit what is said over the scanners to only the pertinent information, Shamplo said.
Posting information from police scanners, even if not verified, is not illegal, Hephner said.
“Anybody can have a scanner, so once it hits the airwaves, it’s public information,” Hephner said.
Sometimes sharing information like vehicle accidents to these social media sites can benefit the community, Shamplo said. In instances of wanted persons or kidnappings, posting pictures can help solve cases, Shamplo added.
“It’s one more way to get that information out there,” Shamplo said.
Reporters arriving on accident and crime scenes have been a nonissue, Hephner said.
Emergency response personnel must be careful about providing information to reporters due to the 1996 federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, which protects medical patients. A selected police or fire official usually can provide the accurate information law enforcement has once the incident is under control, Shamplo and Hephner said. Police can publish a press release later, as well.
“Everybody needs to find out what happened for themselves,” Hephner said. “We’re happy to share that any time anybody asks, after the fact.”
