Chautauqua County Police and Law Enforcement

Last updated on 10-19-13.

This page provides you with information on monitoring police and law enforcement agencies in Chautauqua county, including sheriff, local police, state police, and more.  The information includes tips and descriptions as well as all the frequencies you’ll need!

CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY SHERIFF’s OFFICE

The Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office is one of two law enforcement agencies that cover the entire county (the other being the NYSP.) Unlike the sheriff’s department of other more populated counties, whose sole job is basically prison transports and courthouse security, “CX” also does some nitty-gritty law enforcement work besides the above tasks.  While not a ton goes on in the county, it is still good to listen to these guys.

The operation is non-repeated.  You will be able to hear the dispatcher in Mayville from across the entire county due to multiple tower transmit sites, but the cars use radios with fairly low power, and you need to be very close to one before you can hear their transmission.

CX units are numbered by 3 numbers, each unit beginning with a 7.  Specialized units, such as marine, detective, and administrative units begin with other numbers.  Specialized units for some of the larger towns are also present, staying within the town like little mini-departments.  These units have a letter prefix in front of a number indicating what town they are from.  Here are some of the popular ones: EL Town of Ellicott car J Jamestown unit (have a separate freq, but may be heard on CX) L Lakewood car (have separate freq, but may be heard on CX) W Westfield

Also communicating on the sheriff’s frequency is the primary operations of the NY State Police in Chautauqua county.  While they maintain their own frequencies for inner-agency communications, the bulk of dispatching for these cars will occur on CX, and they are handled just like sheriff’s units.  State police units begin with a “3A” indicating that they are in zone 3 of troop A of the NYSP.  Other units, such as Starflight helicopters and other law enforcement and emergency units, will communicate here as well.  It is definitely a must for law enforcement listening in Chautauqua county.

Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office Frequencies

Freq (MHZ): channel/usage: repeater/simplex (r equals repeater, s equals simplex)

156.21: Chau.  sheriff dispatch, various local police depts dispatch, NYSP dispatch: s

LOCAL POLICE DEPARTMENTS

The busier cities in Chautauqua county, of Jamestown/Lakewood and Dunkirk/Fredonia, have their own frequencies for their police departments.  Other local police departments for smaller towns, such as Westfield and the town of Ellicott, operate on the sheriff frequency of 156.21.

The Jamestown/Lakewood police department now operates on a P25 digital radio system.  This means that this frequency cannot be received by your scanner unless it is a P25 radio that is capable of decoding these digital signals.  The new system reportedly has good coverage throughout the Jamestown/Lakewood areas and beyond.  The units are dispatched by the county from Mayville.  However, all transmissions from both the dispatcher and the field units are re-transmitted in analog on the old frequency of 155.655.  This simulcast has fantastic coverage across much of the county.  Therefore, you can still listen to the transmissions at this time, even without a P25 digital scanner.  “J” cars are Jamestown police units, and “L” cars are Lakewood units.

Dunkirk/Fredonia operates a repeated system with good coverage up and down the lake shore.  They are dispatched on their own, not from Mayville.  They are currently the only law enforcement entity in the county whose units are not dispatched at the county 911 center.

Local Police Department Frequencies

Freq (MHZ): channel/usage: repeater/simplex (r equals repeater, s equals simplex)

154.815: Dunkirk/Fredonia police department dispatch and ops: r

155.595: Jamestown/Lawewood police dispatch and operations (P25 digital): r

155.655: Jamestown/Lawewood police dispatch and operations (analog simulcast of 155.595): r

NEW YORK STATE POLICE TROOP A

Another law enforcement agency covers Chautauqua County besides just the sheriff, and that is the NY State Police.  We are located in Troop A, which is based out of Batavia, and in Zone 3, which is based out of Jamestown.

As noted above, for dispatching, the NY State Police primarily uses the Chautauqua county sheriff/police frequency of 156.21.  However, they maintain their radio system as well, for communications with their barracks, and some dispatching may still occur there.  That system is what is known as a duplex system.  The dispatcher will speak to the field units on one frequency, and you will have to tune to another frequency to hear the field unit’s response.  155.505 is used in our county for the base to dispatch to speak to cars, and 155.535 is used for the cars to respond.  There are a lot of other statewide tac and announcement channels that the NYSP operates, and you can find those on the NYSP page listed in the “SOURCES/ADDITIONAL INFORMATION” section of the main county page, and also on our “NY State Police” page in the Miscellaneous/Areawide page menu.

NYSP Frequencies in Chautauqua County

Freq (MHZ): channel/usage: repeater/simplex (r equals repeater, s equals simplex)

155.505: NY State Police troop A bases to cars: s

155.535: NY State Police troop A cars to bases: s

NY STATE THRUWAY OPERATIONS

If your scanner gets a little quiet sometimes or if you travel on or are interested in the Interstate 90 (NY State Thruway), the following is a channel you’ll need.  The NY State Thruway Authority is known as Troop T of the NY State Police and provides law enforcement on the Thruway.  The Buffalo region channel is a high-powered repeater with units operating on it from the Victor exit to the PA state line.  There are law enforcement units at each interchange and patrolling the highway, and these units are labeled by 4 numbers beginning with a 7.  There are also maintenance units that covered relatively small areas of the thruway based out various divisions.  In Chautauqua County, maintenance units operate out of Westfield (units beginning with the number 48) and Silver Creek (units begin with the number 47.) There are separate maintenance repeaters for these divisions, and they are fairly low-powered, so you really need to be within the division to hear communications.  The units are most interesting and active in the wintertime during winter storms, when you can get information about road conditions.  They will often sound like CB channels with quite a bit of informal traffic.  Maintenance units also operate on the main repeater (453.425), and other specialized units can also be heard there.

The main dispatch channel can be heard across the entire area reliably.  I can often pick it up from Erie on a rubber duck portable antenna.  Each hour in the winter months, each interchange radios into the dispatcher with the road conditions and temperature.  This is also good information about the road for travelers, and also allows you to test out your reception.

NY State Thruway Frequencies

Freq (MHZ): channel/usage: repeater/simplex (r equals repeater, s equals simplex)

453.425: NY State Thruway dispatch and operations: r

460.3125: NYS Thruway maintenance, Westfield div: r

460.6125: NYS Thruway maintenance, Silver Creek div: r

NY DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION

The NY State Department of Environmental Conservation operates some public safety frequencies in the county with repeaters based out of Jamestown.  I have just uncovered them recently, and have not yet heard anything on them; however, as far as I know, they provide public safety to the county’s forest lands.  I will add more information as I find it.

NY DEC Frequencies in Chautauqua County

Freq (MHZ): channel/usage: repeater/simplex (r equals repeater, s equals simplex)

159.435: Forest rangers and fire operations: r

159.225: Forest ops: r

159.375: Forest admin: r

151.355: Allegany region park operations: s

155.7: Allegany region parks, repeated: r