[Scan-DC] Millville: Encrypted cop radio is staying AND Iowa law enforcement now encrypting radio traffic

[Alan Henney]

The Daily Journal (Vineland, New Jersey)

NEWS; Pg. A3

Millville: Encrypted cop radio is staying

By, Joseph P. Smith, @jpsmith_dj
June 22, 2017 Thursday 
   1 Edition

'The safety of the officer' comes first, mayor says

MILLVILLE - Renewed complaints that the new encrypted police radio system is leaving residents dangerously in the dark failed to move city commissioners to agree to modify the system to allow at least limited public access.

However, commissioners agreed residents have a right to timely information and promised to look at alternate systems with capabilities to quickly notify large numbers of people. It was disclosed that one such system, CivicReady, already was getting a look but appears prohibitively expensive.

On Tuesday night, resident George Cooper put on the spot the commission's three members with law enforcement backgrounds: Mayor Michael Santiago, a former city police officer and now director of Public Safety; and Joseph Sooy and William Davis, both retired New Jersey Department of Corrections officers.

Cooper, claiming the older unencrypted system had never led to problems, asked the three whether they would agree to decrypting police radio channels. The answers were no.

Sooy, answering first, said the general public should not have access.

Davis said the CivicReady system might be affordable if the cost is shared among departments and not borne alone by one.

"Mr. Cooper, you know my answer is going to be 'the safety of the officer,'" Santiago said. "When you say that these scanners in the last so many years have not caused problems, being a narcotics officer for 12 years in my career, being under cover, believe me, a lot of cases were thrown out because of the fact of scanners."

Santiago said that the problem of scanner traffic being intercepted by the wrong people "absolutely" still happens.

"I think having our system encrypted works for us," the mayor said. "Not only in that factor, but in safety of our officers. That's my biggest concern. And I'll tell you this for a fact. We had an officer who was involved in a chase. We couldn't hear him. But the other people that were around could hear him, and it caused a problem for us."

Referring to CivicReady, Sooy told Cooper, "We're going to pay a price for transparency. So if that's the price we have to pay, then we'll figure out how to do it."

It was July 2016 when the City Commission introduced a bond ordinance to spend $825,000 on a new radio system that included not just headquarters equipment but new cruisers and personal carry equipment.

The allocation was based on the extreme age of the existing system and its inability to reliably contact officers in some patrol areas. The department worked on picking a replacement with input from the New Jersey State Police, who use the same system the city ended up choosing.

Since the new system was active, the city has heard complaints about residents wandering near to or into the path of dangerous situations such as gunfire.

At Tuesday night's meeting, resident Kim Carty told commissioners of an incident on Friday night.

Carty, a school board member, was being given a ride to 4th and Oak streets to retrieve her car when they came onto the scene of a street fight. Her driver was so upset she threw up, she said.

"Situations like these are occurring on a daily basis in this city," she said.

Commissioners Lynne Porreca Compari and David Ennis did not comment.

Joseph P. Smith; (856) 563-5252; jsmith at gannettnj.com




Associated Press State & Local

STATE AND REGIONAL; Member Exchange

Iowa law enforcement now encrypting radio traffic

By IAN RICHARDSON, Sioux City Journal
June 20, 2017 Tuesday 3:13 PM GMT 

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) - Police radios have been crackling in the background of Jeff Wessendorf's life for more than 40 years.

Growing up, he fondly remembers his parents running the Bearcat police scanner they bought from Greenville Pharmacy in Leeds. As he grew up, the 52-year-old kept at least one scanner in his home or vehicle, for use as a personal hobby and to monitor conditions during the winter for his snow removal business.

"It's interesting," he said, describing what has kept him listening for so long. "And it's good for road reports and stuff like that."

Beginning a week ago, however, things changed for Wessendorf, as well as for the other loyal scanner hobbyists in the Sioux City metro. Radios ceased receiving traffic from most local law enforcement as the agencies began encrypting their main channels, which had previously been public.

While Wessendorf can still receive a few remaining fire department and medical channels, listening isn't quite the same, he said.

"It's the end of an era," he told the Sioux City Journal (http://bit.ly/2sj1WJm ). "It was a hobby for a lot of people."

The encryption follows a major, multi-million-dollar upgrade at the Siouxland Tri-State Area Radio Communications System, or STARCOMM, which includes agencies in Woodbury County; Union County, South Dakota, and Dakota County, Nebraska.

On June 9, STARCOMM fully switched to upgraded radio equipment and joined Iowa's statewide radio system, which allows agencies to communicate with their local contacts from anywhere in the state.

At the same time, channels from all law enforcement agencies in the participating counties - with the exception of the Union County, South Dakota, Sheriff's Department - underwent encryption, meaning only those with specially enabled radios can hear the traffic.

Sioux City Police Chief Doug Young said his department's decision to move to encryption was to prevent criminals from eavesdropping on their location and then using that knowledge to elude or ambush officers.

"Times have changed. ... There are people out there that monitor police frequencies and commit crimes," he said. "You're going to see probably more departments moving toward this, if they haven't already done it."

Before the switchover, the department had used two encrypted channels - one for tactical purposes and one for information - and one unencrypted one for its main operations. Young said discussions among department officials to encrypt the third channel began after a pair of burglaries that occurred about a year ago, in which the suspects had vanished by the time police arrived on scene.

After authorities apprehended and interviewed the suspects, they discovered they had been monitoring scanner traffic through a cellphone app.

South Sioux City police chief Ed Mahon said his department switched over for similar reasons, as well as to be sure that sensitive information like peoples' names, birth dates and social security numbers weren't being broadcast on the department's main channel, as had been previous practice.

"Some traffic, when it gets out, is inappropriate for everyone to hear," Mahon said.

Mahon added that South Sioux City Police have the option to de-encrypt their main operations channel in the future if they find a way to remove sensitive information.

"I don't think any hard-and-fast thing has been decided," he said.

Wessendorf said he understands law enforcement's reasoning, but he's still a bit disappointed about the move.

"It's a hobby for a lot of older people," he said. "It's kind of a disappointment for the honest people who use it like they're supposed to."

As another aspect of the change, STARCOMM has now joined Iowa's statewide radio system, along with radio systems in West Des Moines and Dallas County.

The move has saved both STARCOMM and the state money by providing state-funded upgrades to STARCOMM's existing towers and updating aging equipment, according to city and county 911 director Glenn Sedivy.

Sedivy said STARCOMM's radio equipment was going to be obsolete by 2018, as Motorola would no longer support that version of the equipment.

"We were 10 versions behind," Sedivy said. "This brings us up to the latest that Motorola has on the shelf."

Some local police departments, such as Sioux City and South Sioux City, have purchased new scanner radios, as well, replacing ones that were also nearing becoming obsolete.

So far, the Sioux City Police Department and Woodbury County Sheriff's Office have made arrangements to share encrypted main channels with local media to allow them to continue to monitor traffic. Mahon said South Sioux City is willing to work toward a similar arrangement.

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Information from: Sioux City Journal, http://www.siouxcityjournal.com

An AP Member Exchange shared by the Sioux City Journal.