[Scan-DC] Editorial: Longmont police radio silence goes too far

[Alan Henney]

Daily Camera (Boulder, Colorado)

October 23, 2018 Tuesday

Editorial: Longmont police radio silence goes too far

SECTION: OPINION

LENGTH: 949 words

Longmont police dispatch radios have gone silent.

We find this concerning, and not just because news is our bread and butter.
It's because what Longmont police respond to, how they respond and what
they share with the public is important to our community. And that's why it
should concern you.



Here's just one of several recent examples why allowing the public access
to police dispatch radio traffic matters.

On Oct. 10, a man carjacked a vehicle in Boulder and drove it to Longmont,
where he crashed into another car at Ninth Avenue and Hover Street. From
there, he fled on foot.

Longmont High School and Longmont United Hospital were both placed on
lockout as police searched the neighborhood just northeast of the crash
site. They didn't find the man, who was believed to be armed at the time of
the carjacking.

With Longmont police radio broadcasts encrypted, the Longmont Times-Call
learned about the carjacking from Boulder police radio traffic; and about
the crash because the Boulder County Sheriff's Office was called to assist.

Had the carjacking happened in Longmont, the Times-Call likely would not
have known about it. And, had other agencies not been involved, it's likely
the Times-Call would not have learned right away about the crash, the
lockouts or the search for an armed man, all of which we called Longmont
police to ask about. And the public would not have gotten the whole story.

The Times-Call posted what we had learned by 12:45 p.m. the day of the
incident.

Longmont Police posted their own version of the incident on their Facebook
page, at 12:56 p.m. Here's what it said:

"Longmont Police are assisting the Boulder County Sheriff's Office in
locating a fugitive in the area between 9th and 11th and Hover and Spencer.
The fugitive fled the scene in which he crashed a stolen car. Longmont High
School and Longmont United Hospital are on lock out as a precaution. Please
avoid the area."

Notice anything missing from that report? That the man was accused of a
carjacking and was believed to be armed, and that another motorist was
struck, information the Times-Call shared as soon as it learned about it.
Further, the Times-Call had a composite drawing of the suspect, something
not available on the police Facebook page until the following day.

Wouldn't it benefit residents, especially those in the immediate
neighborhood and parents of students at the school, to have all of that
information as soon as possible? Why withhold such information from the
public when an armed carjacker is loose in our community? And if he wasn't
a threat to the community, why not say that?

Well, here's the police explanation for why it has begun dispatching calls
through an encrypted channel, effectively keeping all radio traffic to
itself.

The decision was based on a "buildup of concerns over victim privacy and
officer safety," police told the Times-Call when announcing their pilot
project to silence their radios to the public. Police said that often,
victims' information or locations will go out over the scanner, which can
be especially sensitive in a domestic violence or sexual assault case.

We agree that such information should be handled carefully. In fact, the
Times-Call makes a practice of protecting the identities of victims of
certain crimes. It's something we have taken seriously for years.

That does leave the possibility that others are listening, others intent on
further victimizing those who have been harmed already. Or that some are
listening with the intention of using that information to harm officers,
which does seem the more plausible possibility.

Cmdr. Jeff Satur said that while no victim has complained to Longmont
police about personal information being revealed, officers have noticed
scanners playing when conducting traffic stops or responding to domestic
situations at homes.

We understand how that can be a concern. Domestic disputes are especially
dangerous for officers.

But police already have the ability to switch to tactical, or encrypted,
channels on a call, so that their locations, movements and even sensitive
information about victims doesn't go out over the airwaves.

Encrypting all information from the beginning, however, goes too far. It
hinders the ability of third parties — and, yes, that's usually us — to
have an ear on what's going on. And it buys time for the police to
determine what information they want to share with the public. Even with a
good police department, that is troubling.

The Longmont Police Department is a model department. Its leadership has
pushed for practical, social solutions to community problems; it has
championed restorative justice; it has come clean when it has failed the
public; and its officers have shown remarkable restraint in the use of
their weapons, on numerous occasions talking armed individuals "down from
the ledge."

We know this, because we have reported on those situations, with reporters
and photographers on the scene. But should the department's pilot program
of radio silence continue for long — or worse, become permanent — there
will rarely be an independent observer around when police respond to any
call, whether it is to a serious traffic accident, a dog bite, a standoff
with an armed individual, or even a carjacker who just fled into a
neighborhood.

The Longmont Police Department's motto includes the phrase "in partnership
with the people." That includes trusting the people they serve to be
looking over their shoulder as they do their work.



— Longmont Times-Call


Boulder County Sheriff's deputies gather at Ninth Avenue and Hover Street
after searching for an armed carjacking suspect in Longmont's Hover Ridge
neighborhood on Oct. 10.