st louis goes encrypted due to civil unrest

[Xray]

Unfortunate but inevitable.
This will obviously spur on the trend towards encryption in all major cities where incidents like this can happen any day at any time.
Seems these people have all the time in the world to riot and protest, if they'd devote half of that time to a productive enterprise they may not have as much cause to continuously whine about their lot in life.


St. Louis, Mo. – Today, the Metropolitan Police Department, City of St. Louis encrypted its radio communications system, limiting access to police department transmissions. This
morning, at 7:00 a.m., the department transitioned the radio communications system to secure mode.
sites, putting officers and the public at risk.

St. Louis Police scramble radio traffic when protestors listen in | FOX2now.com

 

[mk262]

Can't say I'm surprised. I'm sure the county would if their new system was up.

 

[ElGenio]

It's a sad sad day for STL City scanner listeners. I don't think we have the worry about the county going encrypted for a long time.

 

[mharris]

I wonder if they will go unencrypted once the chaos dies down and things return to normal. It seems that they encrypted for a very specific reason, being the current state of civil unrest.

 

[PVPD730]

Hopefully this doesn't set the tone for what happens in other parts of the State. Here in KC, KCPD uses dedicated "Special Ops" channels for tactical situations. Officers and dispatch can turn the encryption on and off as they see fit. That approach makes more sense rather than "screw it, lets lock everything down".

What was SLMPD doing using a patrol dispatch talkgroup in the first place? One of the news reports stated officers were using District 6 to coordinate operations. I'm not familiar with how things are set up over there, but isn't that a routine patrol channel? If so, would it not be more sensible for them to move everything to a tactical channel and encrypt their traffic?

Bottom line, I get why the Chief did what he did. I just hope for the sake of other scanner hobbyists and transparency he will at least open up routine dispatch once everything calms down.

Just my $0.02...

 

[KeyWest35]

It's a sad sad day for STL City scanner listeners. I don't think we have the worry about the county going encrypted for a long time.

Actually the county PD system is scheduled to go online in December. The police and fire already have the Motorola APX 7000 digital radios capable of encryption and most of the north towers are up and done and ready to go. The command communication vehicles that several agencies have are capable of encryption and should for the safety of officers working these dangerous protests. Yes I miss listening as well but safety is imperative for the safety of our police against those who have no respect for law and order.

 

[Xray]

Its a damn shame, I feel for you guys in that vicinity.
Hard to believe people are dense enough to publish LE dispatches in continuous attempts to subvert the law but that appears to be the case and LE made the only call they could make.


For the first time in its history, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department began encrypting its radio system Friday.

SLMPD encrypts radios after police movements published

 

[mikewazowski]

Before posting any more news stories, please read this thread http://forums.radioreference.com/forum-rules-guidelines/113848-reposts-news-stories.html

Thanks.

 

[SCPD]

I think it's good. Now before anyone gets upset at me think about it. You cannot blame the pd. Already being a hot headed area over recent events we all know there are those who tend to riot to gain over others. It doesn't help to repost audio or information of ongoing operations during incidents specially a reporting party's address. This could be dangerous. yet people tend to. Like mentioned the pd responded to it. It's inevitable and I don't see any wrong in it when it comes to riots or civil unrest. I guarantee a few police chiefs also seen that and it'll go to there community too, the securing. Being times of many miserable folks and a low economy emotions are high and all it takes is one bad apple to spoil a entire barrel. It's come to people had it coming and the unfair crying oh well too bad. Instead of saying that department isn't transparent maybe some should be mad at those who are reposting the exact calls over anything else. Ideally letting those know how you feel about posting it on there tweet or facebook. As technology grows so will law enforcements reaction of how easy a group of individuals can elude and organize against law enforcement. I believe what made him from article finally say do it was the actual posting of reporting party's address or names. Imagine you call in a legit call next thing you know a mobs at your door for doing so. Next media labels you as racist then your finally overtime suing the pd for not taking effort to secure your information name address etc.

 

[SCPD]

It's rather curious how, generally speaking, folks here laud online streaming and complain about encryption...collectively in the same breath.

Anyone who continues to deny the connection between the two is in denial, or has other motives.

ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI) – St. Louis City police began encrypting their radio conversations Friday morning after learning protestors were listening to police radio traffic with cell phone apps.

“Information about police tactics was being shared over twitter and that put officers and the public at risk,” said St. Louis police Chief Sam Dotson.

 

[Xray]

It's rather curious how, generally speaking, folks here laud online streaming and complain about encryption...collectively in the same breath.

Anyone who continues to deny the connection between the two is in denial, or has other motives.

Absolutely.
Not many are going to go out and buy a $500 scanner on the fly to monitor calls just becasue you plan on rioting, but when its as easy as downloading an app to your smartphone, thats a different ballgame.

I never even knew these apps existed until recently, just a couple months ago. I got 1 and like it, can be interesting to listen around the nation ,,, And also can help if you are at say a large public event where there is traffic congestion or some kind of tie up on the highway, you can tune in to local state freqs to get a grasp on whats going on.
But these jokers are obviously using the dispatches for nefarious purposes, isn't distributing LE comms like that itself a criminal offense ?

 

[scanman1958]

To the person from KC. Yes the city was using a district TG for a lot of their traffic. It was Dist 2. There was also traffic on Dist's 3 and 4 (not as much) as well as some other tac channels. I am not sure why they didn't just assign a hand full of tac channels to the protest operations and encrypt those channels. It really isn't rocket science. You have the right idea.

The city has always had the ability to encrypt and regularly does so if and when the situation warrants. It is always temporary. Sometimes officers and/or dispatchers 'play' with the radios I guess to get the feel for it. Not sure.

As far as the county goes all the towers are up and some testing has been done. I know many county firefighters and they have told me encryption is not going to be used with them. This could be wrong. I also heard from a reliable source that was involved with designing the county system that encryption will (if it is at all) be used for a very select few undercover or covert operations. I have also heard that 'leaves need to be on the trees' for testing to be optimal. I do hope they test quick or else they will have to wait till spring.

Tonight, some transmissions are coming through in the clear. Some dispatchers, some officers. Lets keep our fingers crossed, maybe things will revert to some normality in the next couple of days/weeks.

 

[PVPD730]

To the person from KC. Yes the city was using a district TG for a lot of their traffic. It was Dist 2. There was also traffic on Dist's 3 and 4 (not as much) as well as some other tac channels. I am not sure why they didn't just assign a hand full of tac channels to the protest operations and encrypt those channels. It really isn't rocket science. You have the right idea.

The city has always had the ability to encrypt and regularly does so if and when the situation warrants. It is always temporary. Sometimes officers and/or dispatchers 'play' with the radios I guess to get the feel for it. Not sure.

Sounds like the same setup as we have in place over here. It's not so much that they're playing with the radios, rather the officers and dispatchers simply forget to disable the encryption once they're finished using it. Happens all the time. At any rate, hope they get it all figured out. As I've said before, I don't blame the Chief one bit for doing what he had to do to get business taken care of. Those rioters are a classic example of people (if you'd even consider them that) who shouldn't have access to law enforcement transmissions.

 

[MTS2000des]

It's rather curious how, generally speaking, folks here laud online streaming and complain about encryption...collectively in the same breath.

Anyone who continues to deny the connection between the two is in denial, or has other motives.

Yep. It is what it is. The agency was being hindered in their tactical response by people using streaming audio of their radio traffic. They enabled encryption. Problem solved.


http://forums.radioreference.com/ra...mple-why-departments-encrypt.html#post2262628

 

[cpetraglia]

No one answered the question about re-broadcasting PD being against the law. Seems like it should be. Would put a stop to all this s***.

 

[mikewazowski]

Gentlemen, this thread is for discussing St Louis. If you want to debate streaming and encryption, please do so here: http://forums.radioreference.com/ra...ive-audio-feeds-scanners-wait-encryption.html

Thanks

 

[Xray]

No one answered the question about re-broadcasting PD being against the law. Seems like it should be. Would put a stop to all this s***.

I would think using LE comms for subversive purposes, whether streamed, rebroadcast or straight from a scanner, would be illegal. So the question arises, if this is so, that if these guys are posting LE info on twitter/facebook for the purposes of interfering with LE, why haven't they been tracked down and arrested ?
Could be:
* They are in the process of doing just that
* LE doesn't want to rock the boat and give them more reasons to "protest".

This is speculation at this point, but I would be shocked if these were not illegal acts.

 

[scannerbuff999]

what about fire are going too in many fire stays away from it sounds like hell in a mask

 

[scannerbuff999]

what about fire are going too in many city's fire stays away from it sounds like hell in a mask

 

[PVPD730]

what about fire are going too in many fire stays away from it sounds like hell in a mask

Encrypted or not, P25 sounds like crap when they're yelling in a mask! The only portable that has pretty good results on the fire side is the Moto APX series, however due to the costs of those units, many FDs can't afford to purchase them.