what do the police call their walkie talkies?

[Alpo]

I was just watching a video clip. This kid has somehow locked the cops up inside a store and he's inside their patrol car. He's looking something up on their computer. One of the cops takes his little portable radio and calls dispatch and tells him to shut down something because somebody has stolen our car. The kid picks up the radio in the car and, using a fake deep voice, says to ignore that last broadcast - some kids stole my walkie-talkie.

 

Dispatch replied - walkie-talkie? How old are you?

 

I'm pretty sure nobody but me uses the term walkie-talkie anymore, although everyone knows what it is. But what do the cops call it?

 

It's like cops didn't have - back when they used to carry them - billy clubs, they had batons. Cops have their own terms. So what do they call the walkie-talkie?

[Wyatt Earp SASS#1628L]

We always called them a pac-set.

OCSD 1980-2010

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

What amazes me, is that with today's technology, when a computer can literally fit in your pocket, they still have those big clunkers.

[Cyrus Cassidy #45437]

We just called it a radio.

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

45 minutes ago, Cyrus Cassidy #45437 said:

We just called it a radio.

What we called them. 

[Yul Lose]

30 years or so ago when I was in the two-way radio service business they referred to them as handheld or portable.

[Badlands Bob #61228]

We just called them a radio.  For 20+ years, all we had were the portable radios.  We were on the 800 mhz trunking system and dispatch could disable any radio or computer on the system as necessary.  They could also turn the radio into a bug if an officer was taken hostage.  

[Pat Riot]

Radios - cops in LA, Long Beach, Pasadena, Orange County, Charlotte, Portland

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

2 hours ago, Cyrus Cassidy #45437 said:

We just called it a radio.

 

31 minutes ago, Yul Lose said:

30 years or so ago when I was in the two-way radio service business they referred to them as handheld or portable.

 

6 minutes ago, Pat Riot said:

Radios - cops in LA, Long Beach, Pasadena, Orange County, Charlotte, Portland

I seem to remember the term Handi-Talkie.

[Lawdog Dago Dom]

Before Motorola Star-Com radios, handheld radios (low band) went through a repeater in the squad trunk.

Typically, you would advise you were "out of the car on my repeater," so they knew not to try to call you on high band because you wouldn't hear them.

With Star-Com, the high and low band (and repeater) were eliminated.

You had a mounted unit in the car, and a handheld on your belt.

Most did not use the car unit, because you were in and out of the car often. (crash scene, etc)

Star-Com has much more range than the older bandwidths.

 If you left the car, to deposit bond with the Circuit Clerk for example, you would say where you were.

No need to specify what radio, since they figured you had your portable with you.

[Sarge]

We called them portables.

[WD Farren]

“Over” is the name I hear most..,

😁

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

Mostly, portable.
Occasionally, talkie.

Watched a salesman use a Motorola talkie as a hammer, drove a nail through a 2x4 and it still worked.

Knew of a Sheriff's deputy who swung his by the duckie antenna and used it as a war club in a bar fight.

Supposedly still worked afterward but I understand he was *ahem* spoken to *ahem* afterward and *ahem* discouraged from abusing the equipment.

I was greatly amused that -- when scenes from Mischief was being filmed in Nelsonville -- los Californios inverted their talkies and used them antenna-down ... my amusement was how fast this fad spread among local lawmen, hired for security during filming.

[WOLFY]

SFPD officers and Sheriff Deputies call them radios

As did we in the FD

[Sheriff Dill]

We called them portables. We also went from MDC’s to iPads for our computers. Each officer was assigned a IPad and you took it in and out of the car each shift. It went to court with you and everything. It was a lot lighter and more convenient than the MDC. We also had Bluetooth keyboards that you could take off  the stand and use it on your lap while parked so you could type and not have to be hunched over the keyboard.