[Scan-DC] Emergency-service radio traffic

[Alan Henney]

Tallahassee Democrat (Florida)

December 11, 2009 Friday 
TD Edition

Sunday Exclusive examines dispatch

BYLINE: By, Bob Gabordi

SECTION: LOCAL CONVERSATION; Pg. B1

LENGTH: 568 words

Executive Editor

I'm sitting at my desk writing as I listen in the background to emergency services in Washington, D.C., dispatch police to an incident in the northeast section of the district.

With little effort, I can switch to New Orleans, San Diego or Fort Myers. Occasionally, I'll listen in to what is happening in a small town in eastern Connecticut where I began my daily newspaper reporting career 30 years ago.

Emergency-service radio traffic in all of these places and dozens more around the country is live on the Internet in real time. In some places, there are options available to get scanner traffic sent to a cell phone or BlackBerry, in addition to being able to hear it the old-fashioned way over a relatively cheap scanner radio. 

In Leon County, however, local governments have just invested millions of dollars in shutting the public out.

Our Sunday Print Exclusive story this week by reporter David Saez will address how the digital and encrypted radio system is different from the old system, where the money to pay for it came from and how it improves communications among local agencies and serves the public.

It will also address the decline in public access to information from its government and whether communications could be improved without shutting the public out.

To be clear: No one is violating any Florida laws by taking scanner traffic out of the public space. Such communication is not covered by the state's progressive Sunshine Laws. Media lawyers and government-access advocates say that this is an issue that might have to be resolved at the legislative level.

And to be fair, efforts are being made to quickly provide much of the same information in text format to the media. In reality, some officials are going above and beyond what is required by the law, which is nothing at all. Frankly, I think it is just one of those things no one expected to come up when the laws were passed.

Still, my question is: Why shut out the public?

We always oppose it when government reduces citizens' access to what their government is doing, and this is a very significant step in the wrong direction for citizen access. This is not a matter of citizens being voyeuristic, but having a legitimate interest in public safety in their community.

It seems to me that the security issues some have raised about open-air or Internet scanner traffic are no higher in Tallahassee than in Washington, D.C. It just seems ironic to me that we are spending taxpayers' money to reduce taxpayers' access to their government's activities. Although I've asked, I have yet to hear a single good reason that explains why the public must be shut out to accomplish better communications.

We think this week's Print Exclusive raises important questions but also shines a light on the very positive aspects of the new dispatch system, as well. We hope you'll pick up a copy of the Sunday Tallahassee Democrat and then go to Tallahassee.com to debate the issues raised on the summary of the print story. You will also be able to purchase a single-copy e-edition of the Tallahassee Democrat at Tallahassee.com on Sunday.

· Contact Executive Editor Bob Gabordi by e-mailing him at bgabordi at tallahassee.com, sending a private message on Tallahassee.com, Twitter @bgabordi, LinkedIn, Blogger.com or on his blog on Friendster. You also can find links to his blogs on Facebook.com, but you have to request to be his friend.