[Scan-DC] Scanner secrecy irks fans

[Alan Henney]

Orlando Sentinel (Florida)

December 29, 2009 Tuesday 
FINAL

Scanner secrecy irks fans

BYLINE: Gary Taylor, Orlando Sentinel

SECTION: LOCAL NEWS; FLORIDA; Cops boost security; Pg. B1

LENGTH: 527 words

When Lee Olsen first tuned in to a police channel in 1942, all the newspaper photographer needed was a simple radio to keep tabs on shootings, robberies and all the other action in Chicago. 

Since then, Olsen and other police-scanner enthusiasts have had to buy new radios to keep up as police agencies added more-sophisticated equipment.

But in recent years, an increasing number of public-safety agencies across the country have taken advantage of the latest technology to keep the public from eavesdropping.

"I think that's wrong," Olsen, a Casselberry retiree, said recently, comparing the secret police broadcasts to "communism."

Law-enforcement officials in Central Florida said the switch to secrecy is all about keeping criminals in the dark.

"Encryption provides a higher level of security that prevents the bad guys from being able to monitor us," said former Winter Park police Chief Douglas Ball, who led his agency to become the first in Central Florida to go to total encryption in 2006.

That city spent $1.5 million during three years to go from analog to digital radios -- an upgrade that allows encrypted communications.

The Orlando Police Department followed suit in early 2008.

Apopka is poised to be next city in Metro Orlando to make the secrecy switch. The Orange County Sheriff's Office is aiming to encrypt in three to five years.

All state agencies in Florida, from the Florida Highway Patrol to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, already use encrypted systems. Safety and security are prompting the change.

"Anybody who wants can go to Radio Shack and buy a scanner" to listen to nonencrypted transmissions, Ball said. "If a terrorist wants to attack a community, they'd know where all the cops are."

Lake County recently put in an all-digital radio system but did not encrypt most broadcasts, said Public Safety Director Gary Kaiser.

"We just don't need it," he said. "The Sheriff's Office has one channel that" has been encrypted for the SWAT team.

Orange County Public Safety Director Mike McCoy said the county is looking into ways to allow some access at least to the media without compromising security after encrypting.

Seminole County is years from the expensive switch to an all-digital system needed to consider encryption. It, along with most public-safety agencies in Central Florida, still use analog systems open to scanner enthusiasts.

Those who use encrypted systems have federal law on their side. It prohibits scanner manufacturers, enthusiasts and anyone else from cracking encrypted channels, said Dan Veeneman, who writes a column for Monitoring Times magazine.

"Once it's encrypted, it's off limits," he said.

The broadcast blackout is frustrating to scanner fans such as Joe Mattern. He likes to keep up with incidents in his south Orange County neighborhood. He and other scanner fans acknowledge that police have a reason for some secrecy. But the public and media should at least have limited access, he said.

With total secrecy, "they can say whatever they want to say and no one will know," Mattern said. "No one can police the police." 

CONTACT: Gary Taylor can be reached at gtaylor at orlandosentinel.com or 407-391-9681.