HANCOCK COUNTY, MS (WLOX) -
Law enforcers in Hancock County now have more eyes and ears to help them solve crimes. A Bay St. Louis man has created a new scanner group on Facebook.
The group which was started about a month ago already has more than 500 members.
The scanner hounds plan to operate like a neighborhood watch program.
Whenever they hear something on the scanner, they'll share it with each other and their neighbors.
Listening to police work has become Kyle Fayard's new found hobby.
The 30-year-old construction worker stumbled on a scanner app that he downloaded to his smart phone.
"We can hear what's going on everywhere," said Fayard.
He quickly learned there were a lot more scanner addicts out there.
"Within 24 hours I think it had grown to 320," explained Fayard.
He created a group on Facebook called Hancock County Breaking News, where scanner traffic can be shared.
"We've always had little neighborhood watches and stuff like that now we have the power of the internet and we can make it take off to new limits," said Fayard.
Fayard said the group has already been successful in helping law enforcement.
"They had an instance where a boy came up missing out the Kiln they came across with a Bolo and one of the people listening to the scanner saw the boy at one of his friends house and called in and the boy was found."
Don Bass, Chief Deputy with the Hancock Sheriff's Department said, "The technology is there for us and the general public know how they use it. I guess we'll determine how we will accept it."
Captain Andre Fizer, also with the Hancock County Sheriff's Department echoed his words.
"To help an officer actually solve a crime it would be beneficial most defiantly."
The officers said the scanner hounds can help and hurt them. Showing up at accident or crime scenes or interfering with police investigations could be counter productive.
Fayard said that won't be tolerated within his group.
"We don't need nobody causing a further incident. We don't need nobody rubber necking trying to take pictures or anything like that."
Fayard said the group plans to do more for the community than share information.
For instance, the scanner hounds recently started a Christmas toy drive for needy children in the county.
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