Slurs Heard Over Police Radio Linked to Private Firm

Westminster police said Wednesday they believe racial slurs heard over police radio channels during massive anti-Communist demonstrations in February were broadcast using equipment owned by the head of a private security company.

Investigators--tipped off by a vigilant and inquisitive amateur radio operator--seized radio equipment on Wednesday from the offices of California Crime Control, a security company hired to patrol the Little Saigon shopping center where the demonstrations occurred.

Though confident they have found the source of the radio transmissions, which sparked an uproar in the Vietnamese community and strained relations with police, investigators do not have enough evidence to charge anyone, Lt. Bill Lewis said. “What we have is circumstantial evidence. We can’t point a finger at any one person.”

Security company owner Scott Knowles, a licensed amateur radio operator, said he was questioned by police but denied he was responsible for the racial slurs directed at Vietnamese and broadcast over police radio frequencies during demonstrations on Feb. 20 and 22.

“I told them straight out it’s not me,” he said. “I’m willing to take a voice pattern and match it with them.”

Knowles said the radio equipment stored in the office was strictly for his recreational use, and none of his 15 employees is allowed to use it for their work. Knowles said he accesses his equipment through a remote hand-held radio.

He maintains that it could just as easily have been a police officer who used his equipment. During the nights of the protests, he said, police were working out of the security company’s offices.

“They’re getting a lot of heat over it. They want to blame someone for it. It could be any ham radio operator,” Knowles said.

The development is yet another strange twist in a saga that began more than four months ago with a shopkeeper’s decision to display Communist symbols.

Truong Van Tran ignited anger in the local Vietnamese community by displaying a flag of Vietnam and a photo of Communist leader Ho Chi Minh inside his store. Two months of protests drew thousands of Vietnamese Americans to the shopping center on Bolsa Avenue in Little Saigon.

During several rallies, hundreds of police from Westminster and neighboring cities were called out to maintain crowd control. On Feb. 20 and 22, racial epithets directed toward the Vietnamese protesters were broadcast over a countywide radio frequency used by police and fire departments.

Though police maintained that any civilian could have easily broadcast on the radio frequency used by officers, the incident strained an increasingly tense relationship between community members and the department.

Police, who suggested from the beginning that an outsider was to blame, announced an investigation of the slurs shortly after they were broadcast. But in recent weeks some community leaders expressed frustration over the lack of results.

Westminster police officials maintain that they have always been committed to the investigation but knew from the start it would be a difficult case.

“We knew we were looking for a needle in the haystack,” Lewis said. “We have a lot of phantom transmissions, and we’re never able to track down where they’re coming from.”

But investigators got lucky when a tip came in from an Orange County man who is an amateur radio operator, Lewis said.

The man, who serves as a volunteer monitor checking airwaves for FCC violations, told police he had often overheard derogatory statements aimed at Vietnamese broadcast on an amateur radio band in 1998--long before the protests of this year.

“He told us he had had an ongoing problem with someone who has been on the amateur radio frequency saying things about the Vietnamese,” Lewis said. “He told us it had been a chronic problem--a pain in the side.”

Late last year, the man--whom police declined to identify--and his friends decided to set up equipment to find the signal’s source, which led them to the shopping center on Bolsa Avenue.

The investigation led the men to stake out the shopping center and eventually confront a person transmitting the signal from a car using a hand-held radio.

The tipster also filed a report with the Federal Communications Commission.

When news broke of racial slurs broadcast during the demonstrations, the amateur saw a connection and called police, who set up a similar sting operation to catch the person broadcasting the messages. That effort was unsuccessful, Lewis said.

“The last time we tried it was the day they had the celebration for April 30 because we figured here’s another opportunity, but there was nothing then,” Lewis said.

Investigators now face a challenge in finding enough evidence to make an arrest, Lewis said. Voiceprints are unreliable, and it’s a tough thing to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

If an arrest occurs, the person could be charged with transmitting over police communications channels and disturbing the peace, both misdemeanors.

Community leaders expressed relief that officers have made progress on the investigation.

“Obviously, I’m relieved they were able to track down the source of that comment,” said attorney Luan Tran, who represents the Vietnamese Community of Southern California, one of the main groups heading the protest campaign.

“As I said all along, all we wanted to know was how seriously the Police Department was treating this.”