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That’s if you just ignore licensing requirements for these very crowded frequencies.

I'm pretty sure firefighters could get such a license in the event of emergency -- or just operate without such a license.

[Edit: or you ask some technician of your local operator to bring the system up :)]

That same operator that brought down their own equipment for some apparently nefarious reason?

They could borrow stingrays from the cops. And they would be in operation when the regular towers are down.