[Scan-DC] Encryption of police radio is criticized

[Alan Henney]

Pasadena Star-News (California)

March 9, 2012 Friday

Encryption of police radio is criticized

BYLINE: Brian Charles, SGVN twitter.com/JBrianCharles

SECTION: NEWS

LENGTH: 1040 words

PASADENA - The move to digitally encrypt radio transmissions by the Pasadena Police Department marks a move away from government transparency, according to open-government advocate Terry Francke.

"Information and access to information is (a newspaper's) prime product," said Francke, founder of Californians Aware, a government watchdog group.

"This move leaves you in the dark," Francke said 

The Pasadena Police Department switched to digitally encrypted radios on Jan. 7, in what ranking officials within the department described as a move to increase officer safety.

The basic idea was that criminals would not be able to listen in on police radio traffic. The radios cannot be monitored by commercially available scanners like those common in newsrooms.

After the police department refused to provide this newspaper with access to the real-time radio transmission, a public records act request was submitted for audio recordings of police radio traffic.

That records request has not been complied with, and the city cited a loophole in the public records law that allows it to claim that all calls for service remain under investigation well after those calls have been handled.

Pasadena police Chief Philip Sanchez says the department is doing as Pasadena City Attorney Michele Beal Bagneris advises.

Defending her position to refuse public records to the newspaper and other interested parties, Bagneris said the police department lacks the resources to comb through radio recordings to determine what could be released to the public.

"It may be because it becomes quite burdensome to go over that information," Bagneris said.

The investigative exemption allows law enforcement agencies to keep secret information that would compromise an ongoing police probe or whose release would put a life in jeopardy.

Not all of Bagneris or Sanchez's bosses agree with the amount of secrecy shrouding City Hall and the Police Department.

District 5 Councilman Victor Gordo, himself an attorney, believes Sanchez and Bagneris are wrong to use the investigative exemption as blanket cover to prevent the media from gaining access to police radio traffic.

"The burden for establishing whether exemptions apply falls on the police department. On a case-by-case basis, the police department," Gordo said. "If the department believes in a particular case that officer safety is jeopardized, than the documents or the recordings should not be released."

Several elected city officials did not return phone calls or an emails seeking their position on the city's use of secret radio communication for the police department. Those who declined to respond included District 4 Councilman Gene Masuda, who ran on an open government platform; District 3 Councilman Chris Holden, who is running for the 41st state Assembly seat; District 1 Councilwoman Jacque Robinson and Mayor Bill Bogaard.

District 6 Councilman Steve Madison wants to see radio signals available to the public - on a limited basis - and has asked for "a policy providing that in the absence of exigent circumstances all dispatch calls should be broadcast in unencrypted form."

However, Madison said he could see instances where radio traffic - including transmissions that would put officers and public safety at-risk; witnesses in harms' way; or compromise personal privacy - should remain encrypted.

And while the California Public Records Act does not require the police department to provide recordings of or access to radio traffic, Francke called Bagneris' use of the investigative exemption "self-serving."

"Newspapers have never, N-E-V-E-R, in the history of the California public records act taken a police agency to court to force them to release law enforcement information," Francke added.

Newspapers have always had a complex relationship with law enforcement agencies, where one side, the newspapers, have been dependent on information from the police and are hesitant to anger law enforcement officials, Francke said.

"My speculation is that the newspapers have not wanted to alienate and undermine the basic working relationship they have with the police department," Francke said.

Officer safety is not the lone reason the city remains reluctant to make radio traffic and audio recordings of police chatter available to the press.

"Some of (the recordings) include information that should not be disclosed," such as personal information about those stopped, cited and arrested by the Pasadena Police Department, Bagneris said.

District 2 Councilwoman Margaret McAustin said she worries that broadcasting radio traffic would infringe on the privacy of victims and of those who may have committed crimes.

"I understand the police department and the City Attorney's Office are working on a way to provide timely information to the media without jeopardizing personal information," she said.

However, the Pasadena Police Department routinely releases the names of people arrested.

The department occasionally breaks its own policy and releases mug shots of a suspect, as was the case with the arrest of boot camp operator Kelvin "Sgt. Mac" McFarland.

Meanwhile, Sanchez and Pasadena City Manager Michael Beck said officials remain committed to developing a compromise allowing the media some access to the police radio traffic.

"We understand and are sympathetic the role that media plays, and we are trying to make all those things work," Beck said. "We are committed to do this by the end of the month. We have some solutions we just have to see that they work."

District 7 Councilman Terry Tornek said the city should allow the same access provided to media by neighboring Glendale, which encrypts tactical operations and investigations, leaving basic calls for service open for the public to hear.

"We don't have to reinvent the wheel," Tornek said. "Glendale encrypts the tactical and operational communications so the bad guys can't listen in, and the public can listen to the rest."

Tornek criticized city staff for not working through issues related to media access before introducing the new system.

"This could have been anticipated when we rolled out the new encrypted system," Tornek said. "We should have been ready to implement this from day one."

brian.charles at sgvn.com 

626-578-6300, ext. 4494