# Scanner Terms?



## Guest (Jan 22, 2008)

Hi Guys,

My brother-in-law is a fireman. Please don't hold that against me!

When I've been over to his house I've heard his scanner going in the background and I'm wondering about some of the terminology. 

What's an "in-house," for example? Is that different from any other kind of record? In other words, are there things on it that wouldn't appear on a record, in general?

If someone has an in-house is that a bad thing? Or do they put everyone in there, even people who've made reports of crimes or who have an LTC?

Just curious. I asked the brother-in-law about this stuff but he said, "Jeepy, I'm a fireman. We don't use the same terminology as the police. If you want to know you should ask a cop."

So here I am, in a new thread in "ASK A COP."

Thanks.


----------



## rg1283 (Sep 14, 2005)

In house refers to the record that Police Department A keeps on a person, almost always on a computer software system like IMC. It could be as simple as contact numbers for a business when the alarm goes off, or current notes about a person (example person who lives at 123 fake street, has psychiatric issues, has been Section 12ed 5 times in the past year).


----------



## Guest (Jan 22, 2008)

Wolfman said:


> I always though an in house was the opposite of an outhouse.


It is and you usually have more of a paper trail...............


----------



## SinePari (Aug 15, 2004)

It's not an official criminal history, but the PD referring to "in house" has a list and reasons for contacts they've made with that particular person.


----------



## Guest (Jan 22, 2008)

You guys are great. Thanks a lot for the answers to this.

My brother-in-law keeps a scanner going at his house 'cause he's a firefighter in the town where my parents live and he likes to hear what's up, even when he's not on duty.

One night my little sister was home and heard a call go to "Fire Alarm" that said that our elderly (mid and late-70s) parents' house was on fire. 

My sister called my parents' neighbor -- a gutsy 67-year old widow -- and that widow ran into my parents' house and helped them 
escape their house fire even before the fire department arrived on the scene.

I will never forget how useful that scanner was that night, because any more time would have been more smoke to breathe, and both parents are already living with congestive heart failure.

So although I don't have a clue about scanners, I can see that they can be useful little things.

Thanks again for taking time to answer my questions.


----------

