
Jeff Sandell, creator of police scanner monitoring site, dies of cancer at 39 - danso
http://www.startribune.com/obit-jeff-sandell-brains-behind-mnpoliceclips-com-police-scanner-monitoring-site/386203481/
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danso
I have no idea if Mr. Sandell was a programmer or otherwise bonafide web dev,
but I think what he created is a nice example of what someone with tech skills
can do with public information to improve the civic space. His website,
mnpoliceclips.com, isn't going to win any web dev awards, but just goes to
show you how far basic web dev -- and effort -- can get you. Seems like has a
lot of fans on FB too:
[https://www.facebook.com/PoliceClips/](https://www.facebook.com/PoliceClips/)

~~~
andyidsinga
this! I don't know him or his motivations : but the concept of using one's
time and skills in technology for social justice / watch dog activities is
appealing. Seems this could play an important part of our checks and balances
as journalism goes through its transformation.

(reminder to self: get that ham license)

~~~
Daviey
Interesting read,
[http://www.eham.net/ehamforum/smf/index.php?topic=17576.0;wa...](http://www.eham.net/ehamforum/smf/index.php?topic=17576.0;wap2)

~~~
tlrobinson
Police scanner laws seem really antiquated.

Would a smartphone with a police scanner app (or even just TuneIn) count?

Encryption is the correct solution anyway.

~~~
superuser2
>Encryption is the correct solution anyway.

I wouldn't say solution. Realtime visibility of police activity is critical to
understanding what's happening in a city and holding one of its most important
institutions accountable.

Police operating in secret is a deeply scary thing.

Granted, there are other mechanisms, like daily activity logs that can be
inspected at the police station.

The difference between Soviet-style "disappearing" people and arresting them
is putting the fact of their arrest in a place where a newspaper will find it.
This stuff matters.

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danso
As the recent shootings in Dallas show, having police comm happen on public
airspace is crucial in crisis situations. Even with traffic unencrypted there
was huge confusion...imagine some "which fucking frequency are you using and
why is Officer Smith not fucking using it?" mixed into the clusterfuck,
exacerbated by encryption protocol differences between multiple agencies --
Dallas PD, DART, FBI, ATF, county sheriff, Texas highway patrol, college
campus police, nevermind fire and ambulance.

~~~
mindcrime
Having to deal with multiple frequencies and protocols is a fucking nightmare
on an emergency scene. God forbid you have multiple agencies from various
counties and states, plus something federal mixed in. It's really a bad
experience and messages do get lost.

Source: former firefighter and 911 dispatcher.

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epoxyhockey
_His father, Michael, died in 2002, also from colon cancer._

This is the most sad part of the story. For cancer that is relatively
treatable if caught early enough, please see this as a cautionary tale and be
extra diligent in getting checked out for diseases that may be hereditary.

~~~
cloudjacker
The problem with that logic is that nobody knows the speed with which cancer
multiplies.

Even if you got checks down to three months (which no insurance would cover),
it would still be like finding a fetus growing inside your colon but too bad
it already pierced into other organs because there is no room for fetuses to
grow there

The fetus analogy practical because many women don't figure out that are
pregnant in the first trimester.

~~~
taneq
I'd never thought of cancer like that before. You're pregnant with a fetus
which is constantly reproducing, trying to make a fetus army in your organs.

~~~
Angostura
The process of pregancy is, in many respects rather like a parasitic
infection. The foetus is very good at dampening the mother's defences to it.

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mml
I looked forward to "North Side Current Events" every morning. He'll be
missed.

