[Scan-DC] Denver to encrypt police radio traffic

[Alan Henney]

The twist here is that news outlets (which nobody wanted to define in the
article) can be allowed access to monitor.

The Denver Post

February 18, 2019 Monday
MON REGIONAL Edition

City to encrypt police radio traffic

BYLINE: Elise Schmelzer

SECTION: ASECTION; Pg. 4A

LENGTH: 1025 words

Denver police radios crackled one afternoon last week with a variety of
calls for service: a father calling on a combative son, teens smoking
marijuana in an alley, a car crash.

Soon, however, the public will no longer be able to tune into the daily
goings on of Denver police as the department plans to encrypt all of its
radio traffic in the coming months, though news organizations will have
access if they sign agreements with the city.

Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen said the switch could happen as early as mid
April, with the department joining dozens of other law enforcement agencies
across the state that have opted to block access to their communications.

Pazen said the move will protect personal information such as addresses and
phone numbers from being distributed to police scanner listeners and keep
suspects from listening in. The decision represents the "best balance of
community safety and transparency," he said.

News organizations will have to sign a memorandum of understanding with the
city before gaining access, and the city attorney's office was working to
finalize what that document will say, Pazen said.

But Jill Farschman, CEO of the Colorado Press Association, said such
agreements are not a tenable long term solution to the ongoing trend across
the state of agencies encrypting radios. She credited Denver police for
proactively reaching out, but said that it seemed that the administration
never considered not encrypting.

"It wasn't really a negotiation," she said.

Journalists use scanners to monitor police activity, report on breaking
news and inform their reporting. For example, The Denver Post first learned
about a standoff Jan. 27 at a house where a suspect shot two police
officers by listening to the scanner, prompting reporters to quickly
respond to the scene.

Denver police's change comes as the department completes a new 911
communications center and distributes new radios to officers. Pazen said
the department hopes to switch to encryption in mid April, though it could
take longer to get the new gear operational and train officers how to use
it. Denver police previously used encrypted channels for investigations and
other sensitive situations.

The police department met multiple times with representatives from the news
media before making the decision, Pazen said. When it comes to determining
which media groups will be granted access to encrypted scanners, the chief
declined to say where he draws the line at who or what qualifies as a news
organization.

"We're not going down that road," he said. "We did not want to define who
the media is."

And neither is the Colorado Press Association, Farschman said. While the
association has standards for its own membership, it will not take on the
responsibility of deciding who gets access to police departments' encrypted
radio traffic, she said.

Technological advances have made it easier and cheaper for law enforcement
agencies to encrypt their radios, experts previously told The Denver Post.

"I see this as something that the entire region could follow," Pazen said.

A growing practice in Colorado

At least 28 other Colorado agencies have already encrypted their radio
traffic, including Aurora, Lakewood and Fort Collins.

Longmont police encrypted their radios in September as part of a pilot
program with no notice to the public, prompting stories and an editorial
from the Longmont Times Call.

John Vahlenkamp, the newspaper's managing editor, reached out to the police
chief and stated his concerns with how the encryption would affect
reporters' abilities to cover the news. Vahlenkamp and others from the
paper, which is owned by the same company that owns The Denver Post,
arranged a meeting with the chief to talk.

"We showed up at this meeting and they had a radio and a contract,"
Vahlenkamp said.

The newspaper's leaders pored over the contract but ultimately decided they
wouldn't sign it because they didn't want any restrictions on what their
reporters could do with information gleaned from the scanner, he said.

"I would honestly rather not have a scanner than sign a deal that we can't
keep," Vahlenkamp said.

The paper later agreed to honor a verbal agreement to be judicious about
what scanner information is published, which is similar to the ethical
guidelines journalists usually use when reporting using radio traffic,
Vahlenkamp said.

Farschman said the policy of giving news organizations access to encrypted
radio traffic is not sustainable. It can also be costly if newsrooms are
expected to purchase their own equipment, like Denver's news organizations
likely will have to do. She said estimates for the cost of such scanners
range between $3,400 and $9,000.

"This is an untenable, piecemeal approach," she said.

Asking the right questions

Colorado's two public records laws do not explicitly grant access to police
radio traffic, said Jeffrey Roberts, executive director of the Colorado
Freedom of Information Coalition.

Roberts was part of the radio discussions with Denver police and said the
group discussed multiple possible arrangements, but that ultimately the
contract solution seemed to be "the only way (Denver police) would be
willing to go."

"Not having a scanner limits a news organization's ability to do its job to
pursue stories, to ask the right questions, to know where to go to report a
story, to get a sense of how an operation occurred and to alert the public
when there are immediate things happening," said Roberts, who worked for
The Denver Post for more than two decades.

Concerns from amateur radio operators spurred a bill last year in the
Colorado General Assembly that would have banned law enforcement agencies
from encrypting all of their channels. Police agencies opposed the bill,
which ultimately died in committee.

No such bill has been introduced thus far in the 2019 session, though
Farschman said the association plans to pursue legislation to create
statewide standards in the future.

"Our big concern is these police departments are presenting their public
information officers as if they're the same as journalists," she said.

Elise Schmelzer: 303 954 1368, eschmelzer at denverpost.com or @EliseSchmelzer