[Scan-DC] Using easily-downloaded smartphone apps and social media

[alanhenney--- via Scan-DC]

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri)

October 11, 2014 Saturday 
ONLINE EDITION

St. Louis police encrypting radio to foil listeners

BYLINE: By Robert Patrick rpatrick at post-dispatch.com 314-621-5154 

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A2

LENGTH: 424 words

ST. LOUIS o The St. Louis police began encrypting their two-way radio communications Friday morning after protesters listened in and reacted to such messages the night before, Chief Sam Dotson said. 

Using easily-downloaded smartphone apps and social media, listeners notified protesters about officers' movements and local residents who had called police, Dotson said. They also warned those being sought by police to change their appearance, he said, citing specific Tweets in an interview with the Post-Dispatch Friday afternoon.

"It made it difficult for us to control the situation," Dotson said, and became a community safety issue.

"We encrypted our radios this morning at 7 a.m." in response, he said.

Dotson said that police had been mulling the change, starting at or before the 2010 workplace shooting at ABB Inc., when Timothy Hendron killed three and wounded five at the sprawling electrical transformer plant.

Asked why he doesn't encrypt only tactical channels, he again cited the ABB shooting, saying that communications that day went out over the 6th District channel.

The radio calls about Thursday night's protests over the fatal shooting by a police officer of Vonderrit Myers Jr. were going out over the 2nd District channel, he said.

Dotson said he is concerned about openness and transparency, and said that a password-protected website was being set up to try to keep the news media informed. He also pledged to revisit the issue in a month to measure the effects of the change.

Asked about limiting access by news media, hobbyists and the general public to police information which has traditionally been available, Dotson said he was not comfortable having addresses of crimes and callers overheard by the public.

Across the country, some departments use encryption, some don't and some encrypt only certain communications. No major agencies have used it in the St. Louis area, although Alton police have for years coded certain messages. It has become more feasible as advancing technology and demand for radio bandwidth have moved police to digital radio systems.

An encrypted message will sound garbled on some scanners, or may not be heard at all on others.

Police in many places, including St. Louis, have eliminated much of their radio traffic anyway by using mobile data terminals to send texts. Some also use Nextel, which as a commercial cellphone and two-way radio service is difficult and illegal to monitor.

Equipment to decode encrypted signals is not sold to the public, and unauthorized use of it is against federal law.

LOAD-DATE: October 11, 2014

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

GRAPHIC: Protesters yell at police in riot gear at the intersection of Grand Boulevard at Arsenal early on Friday, Oct. 10, 2014. About 200 marchers took to the streets after holding a candlelight vigil for Vonderitt Myers Jr., who was shot and killed by an off-duty police officer on Wednesday. Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan at post-dispatch.com