THE MARITIMES SCANNING SITE

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last updated: August 4, 2002

SCANNING NEW BRUNSWICK POLICE SERVICES

(note that the Saint John area is included in the page on the Saint John trunk system)

As in most Canadian provinces there are two major levels of police forces in New Brunswick.   First there is the Royal Canadian Mounted Police enforcing federal laws throughout Canada including New Brunswick It also enforces the provincial laws outside municipalities throughout the province.  The second level is made up of the municipal police services that enforce provincial and municipal laws within municipalities.  The largest of these forces or departments is the Saint John Police force.  In some municipalities the RCMP has, in effect, been hired as the local police force.  This is the case in Moncton and in several smaller communities.

THE ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE 
IN NEW BRUNSWICK

The RCMP in New Brunswick is  J Division of the national force and is headquartered at Fredericton.  J Division is a component of the Atlantic Canada region whose commanding officer is in Halifax, Nova Scotia.   Click here to see a map of the region including all detachments, at the RCMP's site.

J Division has converted in recent years to the district concept, in which various local offices referred to as "posts" in N.B.) operate under the command of  district managers. There are 12 districts in the province. Formerly the local offices were called detachments and had their own commanders.  The term "detachment" may still be heard in an informal way and there remain members in charge of each local office or post.  In addition to the front-line posts there are regional and provincial specialized units providing everything from police dogs to air support to detective services.

Here are the districts and local offices.  The specialist support offices and district headquarters might be in towns that are under the jurisdiction of a municipal force.  For a more detailed map of J division's districts and local offices ("detachments") click here, and to go the home page for J Division click here.

The preceding list is adapted from the list presented at the RCMP's organizational structure webpage which had been updated in mid-2001.

Frequencies:   The RCMP in New Brunswick is currently using a 155 MHz system, but there are hints that a trunked 800 MHz system may lie in the future.  The current frequencies that I have heard used are:

All of these except 155.67 are repeater output frequencies, followed by input frequencies.  I NEED A DETAILED LISTING OF REPEATER LOCATIONS AND FREQUENCIES.  There are also different CTCSS tones in use, assigned by district.  Channel numbers are not known at this time.  Frequency usage in specific areas appears below.

In keeping with the district concept in use in New Brunswick the repeater system in the province is linked in clusters in which all the repeaters in each district are constantly linked.  If one repeater is keyed the others also carry the traffic.  This may or may not be true throughout the province. Insofar as identification of units is concerned the frontline units are identified in the normal RCMP way (numberletternumber) with the first number being the district number and the trailing number being the individual unit.  It is impossible, without constant listening, for the casual scannist to know which individual office the vehicle is connected with. I am presuming that the letter component is similar to that in other provinces, e.g. "C" indicates highway patrol, and so on.  

THE J DIVISION WEBSITE INDICATES THAT THERE ARE APPROXIMATELY 50 REPEATERS THROUGHOUT THE PROVINCE.  CURRENTLY ABOUT HALF ARE LISTED BELOW.  PLEASE SEND INFORMATION ON THE OTHERS IF YOU HAVE IT!        Link to J Division description of system

The following table is of frequency assignments and district links reliably known, provided with the assistance of B, C, M and K in NB, and from my own observations.  I plan to revise and update this based partly on the maps linked from this page.  Sorry for its unfinished appearance.

Repeater Usage:

Each group of repeaters is under the control of a telecoms centre in a major town or city.  It is possible that all telecoms are in Fredericton HQ but also could be two or three centres around the province. Telecoms serving at least some parts of the province identifies as "22" which is short for the official callsign, probably XJE22.    The telecoms operator acts as the dispatcher.

In order for a mobile unit to contact the dispatcher a tone is sent.  This brings up the repeater and it stays on.  An audible  tone is automatically sent periodically until the dispatcher answers.  There is no need for the unit to send its identification as a data burst sends this information to the dispatcher's screen.  This makes it more difficult for listeners to know who and what they are listening to.  In addition to this is the fact that much of the communications are in French rather than English.  

MUNICIPAL POLICE SERVICES

There are currently ten municipal police departments in New Brunswick as of July 2002.   As in Nova Scotia there has been an ongoing takeover of local departments by the RCMP.   Recently, since 200 the departments in Caraquet and Saint Stephen have been absorbed.

While I am listing local police forces in New Brunswick I am not listing frequencies unless listeners send me reliable information.  In the meantime you may wish to use one of the frequency directories available commercially.  While I do enjoy looking through these books I feel that they often contain inaccurate information.  I wish to ensure that as much as possible the information on this site will be accurate and up to date.  Besides I cannot simply lift information from copyrighted commercial publications.

I do have frequency information for the Saint John city police, courtesy of Brian, but because the force partially uses the city trunk I am listing this information in the Saint John City System section.

PLEASE SEND ME LOCAL POLICE INFORMATION FOR ANYWHERE IN NEW BRUNSWICK!!!