[Scan-DC] Privacy versus transparency

[Alan Henney]

Interesting comment regarding RadioReference in the last couple paragraphs.

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Hamilton Spectator (Ontario, Canada)

April 26, 2012 Thursday 
First Edition

Privacy versus transparency; 
Hamilton police and fire moving to encrypted communication system

BYLINE: Nicole O'Reilly The Hamilton Spectator

SECTION: LOCAL / NEWS; Pg. A7

LENGTH: 1054 words

Listening in on police and fire activity in Hamilton will soon be a thing of the past when the city shifts to an encrypted digital system this year.

Police and firefighters use radios to communicate the basic details of the type of emergency they're responding to and the seriousness of the situation. It's often how the media know to respond to murders, fires and car crashes. The general public can also listen.

But all public access is expected to go dark late in June. 

The $12-million lease for the old analog system expires at the end of this year after 17 years of use. The new system, which the city bought outright, cost $23 million.

Police say the move is necessary, but critics worry it could erode transparency.

"This isn't about transparency as much as it's about officer safety and privacy and the protection of victims of crimes," said Hamilton police media officer Sergeant Terri-Lynn Collings.

The service has "made great strides forward" when it comes to transparency, she said, pointing to the use of social media.

Asked how often police find criminals listening to police scanners, Collings couldn't answer, but said "even if one has access to a scanner, it's a problem."

But even if the media is promptly made aware of activity, there is still a reduced "perception of transparency," said Alex Sévigny, an associate professor of communications at McMaster University.

While the average member of the public does not spend time listening to police scanners, there is a comfort in knowing that someone is, he said.

Sévigny said he worries this is part of a wider trend of using technological renewal as an excuse to degrade transparency.

Retired fire chief Jim Kay, who was head of emergency services when the city decided on the upgrades in 2009, said the old system is working fine, but the problem is replacement parts are no longer being manufactured by Motorola.

"Technology has a life cycle," he said.

The radio system has been operated by the fire department since amalgamation; however, police remain the main user - about 50 per cent. City services, such as public works, also use it.

It was more important for police than other users that the system be encrypted.

"The encryption for the rest of the city is secondary," Kay said.

EMS, however, uses a separate non-encrypted radio system that is paid for and run by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, said Doug Waugh, a manager with Hamilton Emergency Services.

This system will continue to operate as is, although Waugh said he would welcome encryption to protect private patient information.

When paramedics need to update police or fire on a situation, they call into dispatch and dispatch passes over the information, or they use cellphones.

Chuck Wilson was the chief of communications with Hamilton Emergency Services when the city implemented its current trunk radio system in the 1990s. At that time, he said, officials went through great effort to allow local media to buy radios and have them programmed to pick up the emergency channels.

He doesn't understand why services are now going encrypted.

"It stops the public from being able to monitor," he said. "What are you trying to hide?"

Not all digital systems are encrypted, Wilson said.

Digital and encryption are "mutually exclusive," and updating the old system would be "significantly cheaper."

One benefit Wilson said he can see is that a digital system takes up less bandwidth - three times the number of calls can operate in the same amount of space as analog. However, Industry Canada said it has made no requests to Hamilton or surrounding communities to lower bandwidth usage.

Hamilton is not the first city to go encrypted - London and Windsor are already there.

Halton is also changing to an encrypted digital radio system, expected to go live before June, said Halton Regional police spokesperson Sergeant Dave Cross.

He said the current system was implemented in 1996 and was in need of replacement because of "age of equipment and risk of failure."

Hamilton's new system will include a web portal where the media relations officer and staff sergeants - "time permitting" - will update journalists on calls deemed to be important, Collings said. It will be password protected and only available to media.

City spokesperson Mike Kirkopoulos said the fire department is seriously considering moving to a system similar to Toronto's, where written call descriptions are automatically updated when the call comes into dispatch.

A final decision will be made closer to June.

He said the decision to go encrypted is because of "public safety and privacy," pointing to the fact that addresses and patient conditions are routinely broadcast by firefighters who are often first on scene.

However, he couldn't point to specific instances where it actually put someone's safety at risk.

The infrastructure for the new digital system includes a main site, 10 radio transmitters and two dispatch centres.

The police contributed $3.2 million to the price tag and an additional $5.4 million was paid from the city's radio reserve.

The balance - $14.4 million - will be financed over 15 years and repaid through debt charges, with no effect on the levy.

Annual maintenance fees will cost the city $450,000 a year.

This will cover Motorola IT technicians.

noreilly at thespec.com

905-526-3199 | @NicoleatTheSpec

There was great attention paid to the public's access to police scanners following the death of York Regional Police Constable Garrett Styles. Several media outlets, including The Spectator, published transcripts of his distress call as he lay dying, pinned under a minivan on June 28, 2011.

York Regional Police Chief Eric Jolliffe formally complained to the Ontario Press Council about the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail, but the council decided it did not breach journalistic ethics.

Media accessed the transcript from RadioReference.com - a website that posts scanner feed and information about radio frequencies. After the Styles incident, Industry Canada sent the company a letter advising that it is an offence under the Radiocommunication Act to intercept, make use of and divulge radio communications.

This letter was then forwarded to all volunteers - who track scanner activity in their respective communities for the website. Hamilton's volunteer or volunteers stopped posting local police activity.