Full time peace officers do not need a Mobile Monitor Permit.
Persons who have an amateur radio license do not need a permit from
the Superintendent of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. If they
have an amateur radio license they can monitor anything they want to
monitor in their vehicle. They must carry the amateur radio license in
their vehicle when they are monitoring the scanner.
The Individual Permit holder is
allowed to monitor only those agencies that he or she has
authorization letters from. For example: if an Individual
Permit holder has a letter from St. Paul Police Department,
Minneapolis Police Department, State Patrol, Ramsey County Sheriff's
Office and Anoka County Sheriff's Office, these would be the only law
enforcement frequencies that the permit holder could monitor. If he or
she was in northern Minnesota the Individual holder would not
be able to monitor law enforcement frequencies there. These
authorization letters should be submitted to BCA along with the Individual
permit application form.
A Non-Law Enforcement Permit holder
can monitor non-law enforcement frequencies throughout the state. Such
frequencies include: fire, ambulance, weather, trains and airplanes.
The permit holder must get one letter of authorization from the Chief
or Sheriff in the town or district that they (the holder) live in.
This letter should be submitted to the BCA along with the Non-Law
Enforcement permit application form.
The Media Permit holder submits his or her
Media
application to the BCA along with a letter on station letterhead,
(stating that the person is a full time employee of that station) and
a list of frequencies they wish to monitor. The BCA sends a letter to
each frequency holder on the list stating that (applicant’s name) from
(TV station, radio station, or newspaper) will be monitoring their
frequency(s).
