Legality of Rebroadcasting of Scanner traffic

[ielmira]

This morning my local sheriff sent out an Officer Safety Alert about my websites streaming of local LEO/Fire Department radio traffic.

I need to know if it is against the law for me to be streaming this dcanner data (I am in NY state).

The officer safety alert included a reference to a homeland security rule banning Rebroadcasting" of Scanner traffic.

Anyone know anything about this?

[KF5DCI]

Pretty sure he is full of it. At least I know here there isn't much of anything they can do about it. Your not providing any confidential or private access to anyone, it's the same traffic anyone else can get with a scanner.

Chances are he cannot force you to take the feed down. But it is not a bad idea for him to advise the departments that you are broadcasting to keep in mind the number of potential listeners.

[canav844]

http://floridalawfirm.com/privacy.html

It is illegal to:

• use information received to aid in the commission of a crime, or
• disclose information received to other persons.

Rebroadcasting to the internet makes it more easily available. It makes it so you're phone can get the info from the scanner. It makes it so an officer running a license that returns a warrant, can potentially tip off the individual listening in via the internet.

So in NY does that change the tables slightly and cause a different level of response to be appropriate for the officer yes.

Are you doing something illegal? Well as NY state law is more restrictive on this topic than US federal law, you'd really have to consult a lawyer in your area familiar with what applies to you to get guidance.

Not to mention this sort of thing is what the administrators in such departments push to go digital and encrypted, so for that sake, regardless sof legallty I'd pull them down and keep the reception to myself for a while, sort out if it's legal or not and then go ahead and make a descion on whether or not to link up the feed.