Officials Probe Racial Slur on Police Radio

The Huntington Beach and Westminster police departments launched separate investigations Wednesday into complaints that racial slurs were spoken over a police radio frequency as officers hunted for two African American suspects in an afternoon bank robbery.

Investigators will examine tapes from the radio transmission, trying to match the voices with officers from both agencies who responded to the Huntington Beach holdup, according to the departments.

During the search, at about 1:22 p.m., a voice on the radio scanner said, “What, are they gonna check every nigger in the city?” Moments later, a dispatcher came on the frequency, instructing officers to “check for an open mike.” Ten minutes later, a different male voice was heard saying, “I’ve got two niggers over here.”

The radio frequency--known by police as Orange South--was being used by Huntington Beach and Westminster police, as well as the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, the Orange County district attorney’s office and the FBI. Experts said the frequency could have been penetrated by any other law enforcement officer in the county or by an amateur scanner operator.

“Everybody is hoping it’s not their officer--if it’s indeed an officer,” said Westminster Police Capt. Andrew Hall. “We were appalled by it when we heard. We’re going to do everything we can to get to the bottom of this.”

The investigation comes less than a year after racial insults were heard over a police scanner during the Little Saigon protests in Westminster. Investigators later blamed the slurs on an amateur radio operator but acknowledged that they did not have enough evidence to charge him.

On Wednesday morning, about 35 police officers from Westminster and Huntington Beach were summoned to Bolsa Avenue and Golden West Street by a 911 call about a robbery at the Wells Fargo bank.

Three men armed with handguns had taken over the building and struck a female bank clerk on the head with the butt of a pistol. As police arrived, the men fled, leaving some of the money they had stolen, said Huntington Beach Police Lt. Luis Ochoa.

One suspect was caught outside the bank, but two others escaped. Police sealed off a half-square-mile area to hunt for the men, both of whom are African American.

Investigators over the next few days will be comparing the voices on the tapes with the voices of officers in the search.

“We’re listening to the tape, we are listening for recognizable voices,” said Lt. Chuck Thomas. “Any derogatory comment will not be tolerated and therefore, we will be investigating this as thoroughly as possible.”

Capt. Hall at the Westminster Police Department said his agency’s investigators will do the same.