[Scan-DC] Encryption article in Wall Street Journal!

[Alan Henney]

Thanks to Gordon for alerting us this...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/want-to-listen-to-police-scanners-cops-say-no-more-1526558400?emailToken=c93b4883b56fb58cdc7c1e8ebc4dbac7XTgQhLSzvsfqQ57pQFT5%2BYuukniVEbPKUpH1QMnjqWy9buZD8kqtP6iZRLZZXTkvfG0PYFFbybe1rxkz%2BsllFr4wavcgExNZEP7l4I84RY0%3D

Want to Listen to Police Scanners? Cops Say No More
Police move to block the public from listening to scanners

More police departments around the country are seeking to shield their live
radio communications. Above, a radio in a police cruiser in Connecticut.
PHOTO: DAVE COLLINS/ASSOCIATED PRESS
By Zusha Elinson
May 17, 2018 8:00 a.m. ET

A report of a suspicious person crackled from John Messner’s RadioShack
police scanner, one of two he keeps at his home in Knoxville, Tenn.

When an officer was heard yelling “Shots fired!” minutes later, Mr. Messner
knew it was time to go. The 52-year-old construction worker and
photographer grabbed his two cameras, his portable scanner, jumped in his
1999 Plymouth Voyager minivan, and raced to the scene 3 miles away, where a
suspected burglar was shot by police.

“When I got there, the guy was still on the ground, they hadn’t put him in
the ambulance yet,” said Mr. Messner of the November incident. “It didn’t
look like he was dead, but he was definitely hit.”

Mr. Messner snapped pictures and posted them on his Knoxville Crime
Facebook group, which has 94,000 members in a city of 186,000. They come to
see photos, read Mr. Messner’s live updates on police chases and burglaries
that he gets from the police scanner, and discuss neighborhood crime issues.

Social-media groups like Knoxville Crime are one reason that Knoxville
police officials say they will begin encrypting police radio communications
in August, making it impossible for the public—and Mr. Messner—to listen in
live. The move comes as more police departments around the country are
seeking to shield their live radio communications, now easily accessible
via smartphone apps. Police say the effort will keep officers safe and bad
guys from finding out what they’re doing.

“When you’re putting out information that only a suspect and a victim and
an officer knows, then all of the sudden you have someone put that on
social media, that takes your advantage away,” said Darrell DeBusk, a
Knoxville police spokesman.

Earlier this year, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department encrypted
its radio traffic, alleging that bad guys “monitor police radio frequencies
in order to better facilitate their crimes and gather intelligence about
the whereabouts of police officers.” Pueblo, Colo., police blocked their
scanner traffic recently, citing suspects using scanner apps to avoid
officers.

Local media still has access to the live radio transmissions in Las
Vegas—police allow them to purchase their own radios. In Knoxville, the
radio traffic will be posted after a one-hour delay, said Mr. DeBusk.

These moves have rankled scanner enthusiasts who range from people curious
about police activity in their neighborhood to modern-day Weegees, the New
York City freelance photographer known for his raw crime-scene photos. Many
scanner buffs are police supporters who want to help solve crimes, making
the decision to go dark a difficult one, police officials say.

“It’s a tough choice because many of the pro-police people out in the
community who support their local police get that way because they listen
to their police on these scanners or phone apps,” said Richard Myers,
executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association.

Some police departments have found a solution by using encrypted channels
for more sensitive work, such as a SWAT team readying for a raid, while
keeping the more mundane police patrol work on the publicly available
channel, he said.

In Colorado, a push to encrypt police radio traffic inspired a bill backed
by scanner enthusiasts earlier this year that would have banned encryption,
except for sensitive situations. The bill failed with strong opposition
from law enforcement.

“These are government agents working for the taxpayers and I think citizens
have the right to know what they’re doing,” said Robert Wareham, an
attorney who helped draft the bill.

Mr. Wareham, a former police officer, said he uses his scanner to find out
about police activity in his neighborhood or on the roads. “There are six
or seven times a year where I avoid a dangerous situations where I know
what’s going on,” he said.

In Knoxville, Mr. DeBusk, the police spokesman, said the prevalence of
smartphone apps that broadcast police communications, such as Broadcastify,
has made it easier for criminals to listen in.

“You’ve always had people that had scanners, but it was not as common as
the smartphone apps,” said Mr. DeBusk. “We actually have arrested people,
they’ve had the smartphone on them and we could hear our own dispatchers,
the sound coming from their smartphone.”

Lindsay Blanton, the CEO of Broadcastify’s parent company
RadioReference.com, called this an “overdone complaint.” The approximately
200,000 daily unique listeners tuning in to Broadcastify’s 6,600 feeds
typically hear police communications on a 45 second to three minute delay
and the company bans sensitive content, he said.

“It’s providing more an entertainment type perspective than the ability to
gain an advantage over law enforcement,” said Mr. Blanton said.

People can listen to public safety, aircraft, rail and marine audio streams
from across the country on Broadcastify. The company relies on volunteers
who send local feeds from their scanners and in some cases police
departments who do the same because “there are a lot of agencies that value
the general public being more involved,” said Mr. Blanton.

Mr. Messner, of the Knoxville Crime Facebook group, said he thinks city
officials don’t like the pressure that the group puts on them to deal with
crime in the city.

Cutting off the scanner will cut off Mr. Messner’s access to the subjects
of his photographs, some of which have made news themselves. Back in 2014,
he went to the scene of unruly college party and photographed a Knox County
Sheriff’s deputy with his hands around the throat of handcuffed college
student. The deputy was fired over the incident, but then allowed to retire.

“I was at the right place at the right time,” he said. “I listened to the
scanner and I heard things escalating.”

Write to Zusha Elinson at zusha.elinson at wsj.com