[Scan-DC] Little Rock to stream police dispatches on Web after 30-minute delay

Thu Sep 25 07:54:47 EDT 2014

Wow! Through the article, I was trying to figure out how this new “streaming system” would work based on the misleading headline.  It wasn’t until halfway through that I realized all they are doing is publishing crime data. Unfortunately, that “work around” is already here.   MPD has its Crime Map (http://crimemap.dc.gov) and many departments use (http://www.crimereports.com).  Good data for community crime activists and nosey lookey-loos, but too cumbersome to casually know what’s going on and for up-to-the-minute breaking news that we thrive on in today’s society. 

I’ll say, the part about privacy laws is new and interesting!  I haven’t heard that as a reason for encryption before and kinda chuckled at the whole circus of redacting audio.  

Always interesting stuff!  

David 

On Sep 25, 2014, at 06:57, Dewey3 <dewey3 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Uh oh, now this is scary, if this "takes", I see a precedent coming!  The
> agency cannot be accused of hiding behind encryption, BUT, what journalist
> or scanner hobbyist want 30 minute old news????
> 
> Dewey
> 
> On Thu, Sep 25, 2014 at 1:18 AM, Alan Henney <alan at henney.com> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock)
>> 
>> September 24, 2014 Wednesday
>> 
>> LR to stream police dispatches on Web after 30-minute delay
>> 
>> BYLINE: SCOTT CARROLL ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
>> 
>> SECTION: ARKANSAS
>> 
>> LENGTH: 995 words
>> 
>> The city of Little Rock will stream computer-automated, time-delayed
>> police dispatches on the city's website beginning Oct. 1 after police
>> encrypted their radio communication in July.
>> 
>> The system, discussed by city officials and police during a City Council
>> meeting Tuesday, posts the time, location and nature of a police incident
>> 30 minutes after it occurs. The data are automatically extracted from
>> computer entries made by police dispatchers. Dispatches will be available
>> to view on the city's website for eight hours after being posted.
>> 
>> City Manager Bruce Moore presented the system as a compromise among
>> police, the city, the public and the media, each of which had been seeking
>> to access - or disclose - different levels of encrypted police
>> communication in accordance with the state's Freedom of Information Act.
>> 
>> Police Chief Kenton Buckner has cited officer safety as the primary reason
>> for making real-time radio communication unavailable to the public. City
>> Attorney Tom Carpenter has said that certain information broadcast by
>> police, such as license plate numbers and home addresses, put the city at
>> risk of violating privacy laws.
>> 
>> Police began encrypting radio communication July 31. A Cabot man and two
>> Sherwood brothers filed lawsuits against the city in August alleging that
>> police had violated state's Freedom of Information Act.
>> 
>> Randy Foshee, city director of Information Technology, said at the meeting
>> Tuesday that implementing the system has cost $3,500. It runs on freeware,
>> or software available at no cost. Foshee said there will be maintenance
>> costs but did not provide specifics.
>> 
>> While the price was the least expensive of other options considered by
>> police and the city, the system provides no vendor support should it crash.
>> Technical problems will have to be addressed by the city, Foshee said.
>> 
>> "If it fails, people are just going to have to wait for us to fix it," he
>> said.
>> 
>> Foshee said the city has been testing the system and that it should be
>> able to handle high numbers of dispatches "if we have a really bad day and
>> get a lot of calls." The system does not provide subsequent information
>> after a dispatch is posted, such as whether officers have completed their
>> response or whether the location of an incident has changed. Ward 7 City
>> Director B.J. Wyrick said that concerned her. She said she frequently used
>> a police scanner - before communication was encrypted - to receive
>> real-time information on traffic conditions to plan her route home from
>> work.
>> 
>> Such live updates would be valuable to the public if there was a police
>> pursuit spanning multiple locations, Wyrick said.
>> 
>> "I think it's a good start," she said of the system, "but there is some
>> action that's taking place out there, and people are not going to be able
>> to protect themselves." Little Rock police Capt. Ty Terrell said Tuesday
>> that police had considered using Tip 411, a text-message notification
>> service, as a public alternative to real-time police transmissions. The
>> service provides crime alerts and allows the public to submit anonymous
>> tips to police.
>> 
>> A two-year subscription to the service costs nearly five times as much as
>> the computer-automated system, and the information it provides isn't as
>> immediate, Terrell said.
>> 
>> Terrell said that police would be sending about 450 text notifications per
>> day and that significant staffing increases would be needed to provide
>> alerts around the clock.
>> 
>> "I don't think anyone wants to receive that many texts," he said.
>> 
>> The city also considered providing redacted audio recordings of police
>> communication to the public. Six days of recordings were requested by a
>> plaintiff in one of the lawsuits filed against the city.
>> 
>> City Communications Manager Laura Martin said Tuesday that redacting the
>> audio would have required "excessive and concise attention," as well as
>> lengthy work hours by additional staffers. Carpenter said redacting the
>> audio would require new recordings to be created.
>> 
>> The creation of a record is not required to satisfy a Freedom of
>> Information Act request.
>> 
>> Carpenter said during the meeting that after the system is introduced, the
>> city still would be subject to lawsuits over police audio recordings under
>> the Freedom of Information Act.
>> 
>> He said by phone Tuesday night that he's drafting legislation that would
>> make certain police broadcasts exempt from requests under the law,
>> specifically radio channels that might contain officers' private
>> information and response tactics.
>> 
>> "I'm worried about if John Doe gets [the information] and puts it on the
>> Internet or Facebook or something like that, and suddenly you have
>> something where you are dealing with officer safety in the future," he said.
>> 
>> Carpenter said that in the bill, recordings would still be subject to
>> discovery in court. He said he was still outlining other facets of the
>> legislation and that he was researching similar laws across the country.
>> 
>> The possibility of unencrypted radio transmission - streamed on the city's
>> website with a 30-minute delay - was also discussed Thursday. Martin said
>> that would require hardware and software purchases by the city and
>> 24-hour-a-day staffing to redact personal information as it's broadcast.
>> 
>> "There's the fear that you could miss some personally identifiable
>> information that goes out on the radio," she said.
>> 
>> Buckner said the system is "a step in the right direction." "The No. 1
>> fear that we had was that folks who were committing crimes, if they had
>> these pocket scanners or these apps on their phone, that they could prepare
>> for us in our response," he said. "So I think we've drastically reduced the
>> possibility that they would be able to do that ... There's no perfect
>> system. We've felt like this was kind of a middle of the road to give the
>> public some kind of transparency, although delayed." Ward 5 City Director
>> Lance Hines said Tuesday that he was concerned about a lack of public input
>> on the new system, but he supports it anyway.
>> 
>> "It's better than what we have," he said.
>> 
>> This article was published 09/24/2014
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