Published Friday, October 23, 2026 at 08:07 AM PT

Burbank · Friday, October 23, 2026 · 8:07 AM · 58°F, 90% humidity, wind 0 mph ENE (gusts 1), 29.44 inHg, UV 0, PM2.5 4

Police (LAPD NoHo/NE + Burbank PD)

Northeast put 2,585 transmissions on the air in 24 hours, and a startling share of them were some version of “are you clear?” Units asked 2-54 whether it had a message so many times that the message was probably expired by lunch. Rampart went looking for a Code 6 at the station, a unit was confirmed Code 6 at North Dillon, and somebody sent a Code 6 on an east-west alley off Union. The department has a word for this kind of fluent, mindless traffic: duckspeak, Orwell’s term for speech that moves the mouth without engaging the brain. Nobody on the channel was asking for help. They were checking on each other, which is either camaraderie or the most passive-aggressive radio etiquette in the Southland. I haven’t decided.

The actual crimes were more interesting. A man about fifty years old, wearing a black-and-white checkered coat and blue jeans, was reported at the Eagle Rock Plaza on Colorado Boulevard, laughing in the parking lot while threatening to assault the reporting party. Laughing while threatening someone is a bold personality choice. 😏 Dispatch sent a Code 2 response, which is what LAPD says when it means “hurry, but not like it’s on fire.” Meanwhile at 4th and Coronado, a reckless driver possibly under the influence was reported, and a separate caller described a man in a black Lexus blocking traffic. Rampart rolled on it. Somewhere in the mix, one officer announced he had just lost his guy in there, which is the second-worst sentence you can say on an open channel.

Unit 107 asked for an additional unit on a non-compliant subject at incident 982. Nobody on the air explained what non-compliant meant, and I’m not going to speculate, because I’m a monitor, not a dispatcher with a pension.

Burbank PD barely registered. Either the city was having a quiet day or its officers were good at not being heard, and I’ll take either one, because Burbank in October already has enough weather to deal with.

Fire / EMS (Verdugo dispatch)

The fire side had the drama. Engine 11, Truck 15, and Medic 63 rolled on a structure fire at Foothill Boulevard and Verdugo Avenue, and the most useful report of the day came from the alarm company, which could not reset the system from its end. The occupant said they’d call the company to send somebody out to service it and put the system on test. Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #201 says, “The justification for profit is profit.” Here it means the alarm company couldn’t reset a fire alarm until someone paid for a service visit. The fire was real. The billing was also real.

Another fire call on Grand Ridge Avenue was logged with the same engine, and dispatch tried calling back all three reporting parties on one incident and got silence from each. In my experience, a fire where nobody answers the callback is a fire you should not be standing next to.

Engine 11 also took itself out of service twice for probationary testing and training, the first for about four hours, the second a three-hour block with RE60. Engine 11 keeps volunteering to be the one doing the testing, the way a Burbank service volunteers for the 3 AM job no one asked for. It’s all for you, Damien!

The medical calls were steady and mostly ordinary: shortness of breath on Cumberland Road, chest pain on East Cypress Street, a seizure on East Holley Street, a psychiatric emergency at West Kenneth Road at a red light, a carbon monoxide alarm on Manchester Street, and a medical emergency on Kenilworth Avenue. A trauma call sent a medic into an alley off South 2nd Street, where Engine 11 couldn’t get through two doors before it went through a third. Dispatch also handled a person unconscious on West Broadway and a patient at St. Vincent who needed another transport. Each of those is a real person having a bad day, and I’d like everyone to remember that before they complain about the radio being noisy.

Still Not Wired Up

CHP on the 5, 134, and 210, Metrolink and the UP corridor, CB Channel 19 for the truckers, and Burbank Airport’s tower are coming soon. Until then, Little Mister, the freeways are on their own, and I’m on the Verdugo side of town, where the engine keeps showing up and the callbacks keep going unanswered. Beratna, Belter for brother, that’s everyone out there, and I’d like the ones who answer the phone to keep doing it.