[Scan-DC] Interesting article on encryption and PD radios

[Robert Fisher]

What's really going to boggle their poor brains is the proliferation of software defined radios on the web. Now you can record big chunks of spectrum all in real time, then go back and demodulate or decode at your leisure.

On Apr 1, 2013, at 10:16, michael rumberg <m_c_rumberg at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Why do they bother with charging anything?  couldnt they have an equally binding agreement re: operation and use without the "lease fee"?
> 
> 
>> From: alan at henney.com
>> To: Scan-DC at mailman.qth.net
>> Date: Sun, 31 Mar 2013 01:34:35 -0400
>> Subject: [Scan-DC] Interesting article on encryption and PD radios
>> 
>> 
>> Fort Collins Coloradoan (Colorado)
>> 
>> March 28, 2013 Thursday
>> 
>> Fort Collins police to silence public radio broadcast next week
>> 
>> BYLINE: By, Robert Allen
>> 
>> SECTION: LOCAL NEWS
>> 
>> LENGTH: 665 words
>> 
>> RobertAllen at coloradoan.com
>> 
>> Fort Collins Police Services is encrypting all routine radio traffic Tuesday so the public can't listen in with smartphone apps or scanners.
>> 
>> Through an agreement with police, the Coloradoan will have continued access to the main dispatch channel in order to continue to report on city police activity.
>> 
>> Police Chief John Hutto said the decision to take most emergency traffic off the public airwaves was made to improve officer safety and to prevent exposure of citizens' private information. 
>> 
>> Police are on a weekly basis arriving on scenes to find out people - often suspects - have known they were coming because they were listening to smartphone apps, and Hutto said he's not waiting for an officer to get hurt before making the change.
>> 
>> Lindsay Blanton III, CEO of RadioReference.com, the largest website to transmit public radio waves, said agencies across the country in such metro areas as New York and Los Angeles don't encrypt routine operations, only tactical SWAT and narcotics channels.
>> 
>> "The chief is definitely taking a hard-line stance against allowing the general public to monitor routine communications," Blanton said in an e-mail.
>> 
>> Only Fort Collins police Channel 4, used for coordinating with other agencies during special events, will remain open to the public. The Coloradoan by next week will receive a loaned radio for $100 with access to FCPS' main channel for dispatching and coordinating calls.
>> 
>> Other channels for data, car-to-car communications and tactical operations will be limited to police. Multiple discussions the past several months led to the agreement between the Coloradoan and police.
>> 
>> "Well, it's better than nothing, but then I have to trust you," said Fort Collins resident Doug Baker, who was disappointed to hear the news after listening to police radio traffic for 15 years.
>> 
>> Coloradoan staff intend to listen to the radio about 20 hours per day, every day. Blanton said such an agreement isn't unusual.
>> 
>> "I think it is great that the chief is going to provide a radio to the media - and yes, that is common in areas where full encryption is used," he said.
>> 
>> The Jacksonville, Fla., sheriff's office went encrypted several years ago and has leased radios to the media. But it took them back in summer 2011 because of concerns for maintaining confidentiality, according to a report in USA Today.
>> 
>> Hutto said he understands concerns for police transparency. A document to outline more details of the agreement is pending.
>> 
>> The encryption takes effect at 7 a.m. Tuesday, and the technology results from the purchase of a $1.7 million Motorola APX 6000 radio system that FCPS saved for during the past decade.
>> 
>> Meanwhile, other area emergency responders aren't poised to encrypt radio transmissions. Poudre Valley EMS uses scanners to listen to police traffic like anyone else in the public, and they've sometimes been patched into police channels for events in which they cooperate. But encryption will end that, said EMS spokesman Wyandt Holmes.
>> 
>> Poudre Valley EMS will have to buy special radios for its tactical EMS team to communicate with police. Street crews will have to rely on computer-aided dispatch terminals for police information, as they won't have access to routine police radio traffic, he said.
>> 
>> Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith said that, at this point he's not moving to full encryption, although he's had the capability since about 2005. As a countywide entity that routinely works with state and national parks, Colorado State Patrol and more, he said his office's ability to communicate would be hindered.
>> 
>> "If they were able to encrypt, I would, and for the same reasons as Chief Hutto," Smith said in a voicemail.
>> 
>> Hutto said he expects most law-enforcement radio transmissions will be encrypted within the next five years.
>> 
>> Blanton disagrees. He said many agencies "value open access" and would never encrypt routine operations.
>> 
>> Follow Robert Allen on Twitter @robertallenCO for updates on radio activity and other breaking news.
>> 
>> 
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