[Scan-DC] Highlands County (mentions DC encryption)

[Alan Henney]

Highlands Today (Sebring, Florida)

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News

February 1, 2012 Wednesday

Access to radio traffic is an issue

BYLINE: Gary Pinnell, Highlands Today, Sebring, Fla.

SECTION: STATE AND REGIONAL NEWS

LENGTH: 1083 words

Feb. 01--SEBRING -- If Highlands County commissioners allow the purchase of a new $8 million emergency radio system, each agency can decide whether to encrypt its signals.

The radios would be used by the sheriff's office, the three police departments, ambulance crews and fire departments for the county, the three municipalities and rural fire districts, said Emergency Management Coordinator Ben Henley.

Here's the dilemma: Police need to encrypt radio traffic so bad guys can't listen. However, the public, Neighborhood Watch, scanner enthusiasts and the news media want -- in some cases need -- to hear what's going on. 

More than 10 years after 9/11, Capitol Police still patrolled the 4-acre U.S. Capitol complex with an analog, non-encrypted radio network that can be monitored with a $99 Radio Shack police scanner or a $5 cell phone application.

On a single morning, the National Journal reported, the scanner broadcasted a hazardous material incident at Capitol South Metro Station, responses to door alarms, requests for help and an explosives sweep outside a U.S. House office building.

Listeners could track the movements of the U.S. president or foreign dignitaries. The 1,800 Capitol cops routinely walk into deep tunnels and rooms that radio signals couldn't penetrate.

And the analog radios caused problems of interoperability -- the inability to communicate with Washington, D.C. police, the FBI, Secret Service and other agencies.

After September 2011, TV and radio station news directors, the Associated Press and the Washington Post could no longer listen to even non-sensitive communications after nearly all radio channels were encrypted over the 63.8 square miles the D.C. police patrol.

Chief Cathy Lanier said burglars had been listening to radio communications on their smart phones to pull off more than a dozen crimes. They were later arrested.

And a group of drug dealers fled a coin laundry after a sergeant used his radio to call in other officers -- suggesting they, too, might be listening.

Police officers already have secure communication, Phil Metlin, news director of WTTG-Fox 5 in Washington, said at a D.C. council hearing.

"If the police need to share sensitive information among themselves, they know how to do it. Special encrypted channels have been around for a long time; so have cellphones."

Highlands County's current radio network already has three encrypted channels; one has been around since the 1990s, Emergency Management's Henley said.

The other side of the argument: Journalists and neighborhood watchdogs say open and swift police communications are necessary to ensure the public receives information vital to its safety.

"I like to listen to my scanner to see what's going on in my neighborhood to figure out whether to go outside in my sweats or be armed," said Dave Doty of Lake Placid.

"They work for the public," said John Mansky of Sebring. "The information needs to be accessible to the public, plain and simple. If they're doing their jobs, they should have nothing to hide."

Police apprehension about scanners isn't new: Hobbyists and the media have tracked police and fire departments for years. But scanner listeners also tip the police and other emergency responders.

Henley agreed the public has helped.

When police try to hide their activities, journalists and the public become suspicious. That's why some departments have studied full encryption but decided against it.

"Because we've always retained the ability to encrypt traffic on a case-by-case basis when we need to, in a community like Greenwich (Conn.), I think the transparency we achieve by allowing people to listen to our radio communications certainly outweighs any security concern we have," said Capt. Mark Kordick.

There is a compromise: The Jacksonville sheriff's office leased radios so the media could listen to encrypted patrol channels. However, the practice ended out of concern about maintaining the confidentiality of radio transmissions, said agency spokeswoman Lauri-Ellen Smith.

At one point, D.C.'s Lanier allowed the media access to radio communications, but only if signals were delayed and if police could scrub the information. Instead, Lanier's department advises the public of developing crimes through Facebook, Twitter and email alert.

Officers will use an unencrypted channel starting next month to alert the public to traffic delays, said spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump.

The media can sign up to receive information when "serious crimes" occur, she said. However, that doesn't provide the same information as scanners, which is required for public oversight. Lanier asked for trust but fired back at claims that encrypted radios make it harder for the media to find bad cops.

TV news director Metlin said telling the media and other watchdogs only what police want them to know isn't good enough.

"What if, God forbid, there is another act of terrorism here? It is our job to inform the public in times of emergency."

The cost of encryption isn't an issue. Henley said encryption is built into one of the two radio systems he's recommending to Highlands commissioners. It's $15 per radio for the other system.

However, encryption is cumbersome and difficult to manage, especially for large law enforcement agencies, said an Associated Press story. The more radios with access, the greater the risk that secrecy will be compromised, and the harder it becomes to ensure that everyone who needs access has it.

Along with private ambulance companies, Highlands County's system would have a couple dozen agency users, Henley said. The number of users in Highlands has more than doubled since 2000.

"There are almost 900 radios in the field today," he said. "I can't tell you where we're going to be in five years."

Instead of a new digital network, Henley said county commissioners could retrofit the current analog system, which would cost about one-fourth of an $8 million digital system.

"And none of this has to happen today," he said. "The current system is safe to use for the next two or three years, until we start to run out of replacement equipment."

Then he'd turn to eBay for parts or buy third-hand from other departments.

"But this is where the technology is going," Henley said, and future federal grants will depend on whether the radio system is compatible with Project 25 -- a suite of digital radio standards.

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