LEO chose poorly on this one.

[wd4llq]

A deputy made a huge mistake by confiscating the radios of a young man in school. According to the article the boy had permission to carry the radio as long as it wasn't disruptive. Apparently a teacher somewhere heard one of the radios and a law enforcement officer confiscated the radios without a warrant. in the process he obtained a warrant to get radios at the home as well. The young man is a licensed amateur radio operator. Here's a link to the story.

https://www.kentucky.com/news/local/art ... 91ZFpZcCWA

Interestingly I have a friend of mine that pastors a church in Somerset who has a fire department issued radio for when he is called out in emergencies To fulfill pastoral or counseling needs. This is a very low crime rate town and no doubt this is the biggest thing that this deputy probably had to deal with.

[Michael M]

Interesting story, but I'm left with more questions than answers.

Why did the school suspend the student?

It states he was allowed to carry the radios as long as they weren't disruptive. Who allowed him?

What frequency was he transmitting on? Transmitting on a "public, non-law enforcement radio frequency," could be the fire department. If so, his amateur radio license would not grant him that permission.

It states, "Hellard did not identify any crime that he thought L.B. committed." That information is readily available on the warrant and any arrest affidavit or charging documents, so why make this statement when the reporter could have easily obtained that information? Generally, a law enforcement officer does not need a warrant to temporarily secure property to preserve evidence, like preserving the evidence of the radio's programming, until he gets a warrant for its seizure.

Stacy Halcomb, the Pulaski County fire commissioner, and Somerset Fire Chief Bengie Howard sent Hellard documents that said they never authorized L.B. to program into their radio frequencies.

However, being a licensed amateur radio operator, L.B. would not have required their authorization to access the frequencies, according to the lawsuit.

Not so fast. While he can program those frequencies, and no licenses required for that, an amateur radio license does not allow the holder to transmit on public safety frequencies. What frequencies was he transmitting on?

It states that Hellard was suspended from the Sheriff's Office. What was he suspended for?

We can guess and advance conjecture and supposition to these questions, but that's all we have until we get a better accounting of what happened here. Should any more information become available, let's post it here.