March 21--Investigators have confirmed that recent transmissions including racial slurs broadcast over police-band radio on the Far South Side came from "external, unauthorized radios," a police spokesman said Monday.
A spokeswoman for the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications had previously said that an "unauthorized user" apparently broadcast the racial slurs and profanities over a police radio channel on March 13.
"The racial comments are abhorrent and absolutely unacceptable. We have confirmed these are coming from external, unauthorized radios accessing emergency frequencies," said police spokesman Frank Giancamelli in an email Monday. "At this time, there is no evidence that this individual is a city employee, however, OEMC and CPD continue to investigate."
The radio transmissions occurred at 8:25 a.m. March 13 on Zone 9, a channel that serves the Calumet and Morgan Park police districts, according to archived traffic provided by Broadcastify.com. They were made by at least one male, possibly two, while a dispatcher was speaking to an officer.
"We have reviewed the audio for this incident and we do not believe that the comments were made through the use of a city-programmed radio, as the audio in question lacks identifying characteristics of an official police radio," OEMC spokeswoman Melissa Stratton said in the days following the transmissions.
In the radio traffic, a dispatcher is trying to get a police unit to respond. When an officer replies, apparently mistakenly, she replies, "No, boo, it's too early to be bothering you. Good morning."
"Yeah, good morning," the officer replies.
Another officer chimes in saying, "How many boyfriends you have?"
"Why are you all in my Kool-Aid? Why you over here?" the dispatcher replies, apparently because that officer was assigned to a different police zone.
A male voice then interjects: "Typical f---in' n---s."
Later, after the dispatcher and the first officer talk about the profanity and racial slurs and who might have broadcast them, a man's voice, possibly adopting an accent, says: "All black lives matter, man. F---in' n---s."
Although police frequencies are legally restricted to official traffic, the Police Department and the city's Office of Emergency Communications have at times had to deal with people, including security guards, making unauthorized transmissions on police radio.
In March 2015, for example, a security guard at Kennedy-King College was arrested after using a police-band radio to call in a foot chase involving a suspect in a criminal damage to property incident.
