# speech rate ( fast or slow talker ) and speech volume **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 26, 2014, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speech-rate-fast-or-slow-talker-and-speech-volume/679732 "2014-01-26T05:32:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speech-rate-fast-or-slow-talker-and-speech-volume/679732/1 "2014-01-26T05:32:33Z")
So I had some free time to kill .So I check out the on line police scanner and thought also I could hear the different accents in different cities.I was shocked!! Not so much accents but speed talking rate and speech volume. To my surprised , how could a southern city talk faster than a northern city? Palm Beach County Public Safety ( Police) [http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/15767](http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/15767) Tucson Police and EMS [http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/2892](http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/2892) Now you can’t get more northern than Canada the police in suburbs of Toronto. sorry Toronto police are NOT on here ( have to listen to the suburb police in Toronto) Peel Regional Police [http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/14338](http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/14338) Wow!! To my surprised the Peel Regional Police talk slower than Palm Beach County Public Safety ( Police) and Tucson Police and EMS. How could this be? To my ears Tucson talks the fastest than Palm Beach County just little bit faster but Peel Regional Police talks much slower than any of them. How can that be? Also Palm Beach County there accents is extremely flat? IS that how people talk now in Florida? It makes me sleepy listening too them because the accents is extremely flat. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speech-rate-fast-or-slow-talker-and-speech-volume/679732/2 "2014-01-26T05:43:52Z")
I don’t have an answer to your question, but you really shouldn’t equate dispatch speech with regular speech in the context of daily, face-to-face human interaction. There could be any number of reasons why one dispatch system would adopt slower or faster speech rates. Such a system itself is effectively its own [discourse community](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discourse_community), and that type of characteristic would be perpetuated through training, etc. ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2014, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speech-rate-fast-or-slow-talker-and-speech-volume/679732/3 "2014-02-15T04:45:17Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > I don’t have an answer to your question, but you really shouldn’t equate dispatch speech with regular speech in the context of daily, face-to-face human interaction. There could be any number of reasons why one dispatch system would adopt slower or faster speech rates. Such a system itself is effectively its own [discourse community](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discourse_community), and that type of characteristic would be perpetuated through training, etc. Atlanta Police talk slower!! But man , they are giving me a headache !! They are so soft spoken .I sure hope people in Atlanta don’t talk like that. [http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/3572](http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/3572) On a side note, the west coast speak very flat.Where the east coast ,south east parts of the US in some states and in Canada have feature called **rising**. It could be the very flat accents that are confusing me. The lack of rising and clipped words will also appear that you are talking faster.I have seen lot of reality shows in west coast and they appear very flat speaking. The PD and FD may be overemphasizing the use of clipped speach and lack of rising. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2014, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speech-rate-fast-or-slow-talker-and-speech-volume/679732/4 "2014-02-15T04:56:01Z")
Various training agencies emphasize speaking slowly and clearly on the radio. Do it once in a way you are certain the recipient can understand the message. Saves having to repeat everything. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2014, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speech-rate-fast-or-slow-talker-and-speech-volume/679732/5 "2014-02-16T22:11:05Z")
If you want to take action to address this problem, join the [STOA](http://www.myoldradio.com/old-radio-episodes/bob-elliot-andamp;-ray-goulding-slow-talkers-of-america/24).