[Scan-DC] Police and firefighters in Roanoke County and Salem ARE NEXT!

Fri Jul 6 20:56:10 EDT 2018

I've noticed Arlington's voice traffic isn't as busy as it used to be.

On a different note, I was down in the Northern Neck of VA last weekend and was scanning Northumberland County's plain-old VHF analog system. It was amazing how crystal clear the voice quality was. Even in places where the signal was very weak, I actually had a chance to figure out what they were saying. Digital brings some benefits, but audio quality and weak signal intelligibility ain't on that list.

________________________________
From: scan-dc-bounces at mailman.qth.net <scan-dc-bounces at mailman.qth.net> on behalf of Binstockj <binstockj at comcast.net>
Sent: Friday, July 6, 2018 8:41 PM
To: Steve
Cc: Scan DC; Alan Henney
Subject: Re: [Scan-DC] Police and firefighters in Roanoke County and Salem ARE NEXT!

I agree that this encryption trend is killing our hobby.  However, putting the encryption issue aside, police radio communications have declined big time due to mobile laptops in their vehicles.  Initial dispatches tend to go out on-line now and officers may respond over the air.  Tag checks are on-line.  MSP has always been pretty quiet per their protocol to keep radio traffic to a minimum.

Jonathan
NK3D

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 6, 2018, at 11:35 AM, Steve <restonham at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Gets worse by the month.  Anyone interested in buying a RS Pro 197 in great condition with programming cable?  Seriously - I don’t use it at all these days.
>
> Steve, N4EUK
>
>> On Jul 6, 2018, at 01:48, Alan Henney <alan at henney.com> wrote:
>>
>> The Roanoke Times (Virginia)
>>
>> July 5, 2018 Thursday
>> Metro Edition
>>
>> Scanner traffic will be silenced;
>> Scanner chatter goes quiet as police agencies turn to encryption
>>
>> BYLINE: Henri Gendreau henri.gendreau at roanoke.com 5409813227
>>
>> SECTION: NATIONAL; Pg. 1A
>>
>> LENGTH: 811 words
>>
>> Across the land, the scanners are going dark.
>>
>> Several law enforcement agencies in Virginia have moved recently to encrypt
>> the messages they send over the radio, leaving dead air for listeners of
>> police scanners - long the source of information for the news media and
>> titillation for thrill-seekers.
>>
>> On Monday, police in Richmond and surrounding Henrico and Chesterfield
>> counties encoded their radio signals. Virginia Beach has proposed a nearly
>> $5 million encryption project.
>>
>> And soon, police and firefighters in Roanoke County and Salem will encrypt
>> radio traffic, both as part of a shift to new technology and as a
>> reflection of trends nationwide. Law enforcement agencies in Nevada, Ohio,
>> Iowa and elsewhere have already encoded channels. Earlier this year,
>> Colorado lawmakers struck down a bill that would have banned departments
>> from encrypting radio signals.
>>
>> The move toward encryption is setting up a debate over who should control
>> the flow of information, and when.
>>
>> Encryption protects sensitive communications, such as an officer's location
>> or a victim's date of birth, said Roanoke County Police Chief Howard Hall.
>>
>> Hall said he thinks officers' safety and individuals' privacy outweigh the
>> public's right to know what is happening.
>>
>> "Both of those concerns are valid," said Megan Rhyne, executive director of
>> the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, a nonprofit that advocates
>> transparency in government. "Neither of those concerns has risen to a level
>> of necessitating cutting off access."
>>
>> The public has no legal right to listen in on scanner traffic.
>>
>> Encryption, Rhyne added, "is part of an overall pattern of elevating
>> officer safety and individual privacy over public safety and the public's
>> right to know."
>>
>> Some phone apps and websites have made it easier in recent years for the
>> general public, as well as criminals and journalists, to listen in on
>> police activity. Last week, when a gunman killed five people at The Capital
>> newspaper office in Maryland, more than 6,000 people were tuned in at one
>> online site to Anne Arundel County Fire and EMS channels.
>>
>> Richmond's police chief has said the department is not trying to hide
>> anything by encrypting its channels. Henrico and Chesterfield have
>> introduced websites that list calls for police service in real time, with a
>> rough location, time and description of an incident. Last week, "animal"
>> and "larceny" calls appeared.
>>
>> Roanoke County police spokeswoman Amy Whittaker said the department will
>> not be creating such a site. She added that the agency provides weekly
>> reports of service calls and a crime map, and notifies the public of major
>> events through alert systems and social media.
>>
>> The city of Roanoke has recently held talks about upgrades to its radio
>> technology. Since the city will be upgrading radios in the near future, and
>> the county and city use the same radio network, the city eventually will
>> have the ability to encrypt radio traffic.
>>
>> "There's a lot of city departments involved in that whole discussion," said
>> John Powers, systems coordinator for the city's E-911 call center. "It's up
>> to the police and fire department whether they think it's necessary."
>>
>> Powers referred additional questions to city staff, who did not respond by
>> press time.
>>
>> Roanoke Police Chief Tim Jones said he has not been a part of any
>> conversations in the department about encryption.
>>
>> "As long as my radio works, I really don't care," he said.
>>
>> Jones said he thinks agencies' use of encryption eventually will be
>> challenged in the courts, which will then "have to balance the First
>> Amendment need to know versus officer safety.
>>
>> "I think the reasonable citizen would say, 'I don't want two people robbing
>> a bank knowing how quickly the officers will get there,'" Jones said.
>>
>> Encryption itself won't cost the county, according to Bill Hunter, director
>> of communications and information technology.
>>
>> "As radio systems progress in the digital world, encryption techniques have
>> become much easier," Hunter said in an email.
>>
>> Roanoke County will, however, shell out $3.2 million for new public safety
>> radios, according to its budget. Hall said the department is in the process
>> of switching out its hardware. The upgrade is needed because updates to
>> existing radios are being phased out.
>>
>> Roanoke's budget says the city will replace about 800 radios over the next
>> few years. The city's budget says the county is buying radios in bulk for
>> the county and city to reduce costs.
>>
>> Ray Pillow, a member of the Roanoke Valley Amateur Radio Club, expressed
>> mixed feelings about encrypting radio traffic.
>>
>> "I guess the law-abiding citizen side of me says, 'OK, no problem,'" he
>> said. "Back in the day, when everything was all analog, I had a scanner and
>> I listened to a lot of stuff, but it was just out of curiosity.
>>
>> "I don't need to listen to everything that goes on out there," Pillow
>> added. "If you did that, you'd go nuts."
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