Well folks, at 9:01 AM this morning it appears Westy PD went totally dark, quite likely for good. They already had an encrypted swat channel, but apparently that wasn't good enough...
That's a little unfortunate timing. I was going to attempt to do some logging of the Westminster system in the next few weeks to see if I could catch and figure out any remaining Westminster unknowns prior to them encrypting.
They are the first for the metro area.
They are the first for the metro area.
I just don't understand the benefit. If something shouldn't be aired it's easy to have another system similar to DPD that uses Nextel, or just pick up the phone.
The benefit is they can claim it's about safety. Theirs and ours - I love that one. Trust us you're safer if no one knows what we're doing. And they can claim the criminals are listening. I'm sure some are, but not many. Never examples.I just don't understand the benefit. If something shouldn't be aired it's easy to have another system similar to DPD that uses Nextel, or just pick up the phone. Does anyone know if this was brought up during any public meetings in Westminster?
Interoperability will be an issue because the other agencies in the metro area may not be able to talk them on major incidents
I doubt it is a coincidence they started encrypting immediately after the troubles in Ferguson MO, Maybe Westminster has some bad police officers they want to protect. in fergusan they work hard to keep Media from FIlming, so probably on the same modivation for Westminster to go Encrypted
Thanks for bringing that up. I heard that bank robbery as well and thought I heard the comment about the scanner but I wasn't sure. I think they switched to Blue Northwest then.About two weeks ago, Westy PD and several other agencies were working a bank robbery. The announcement was made that the suspects had a scanner, and the radio was "compromised". That may have been the triggering incident.
Having said that, I'm a retired police officer who trained recruit officers for 13 years. It was part of my training as a recruit, that we should always ASSUME that EVERY radio transmission was heard by citizens at large. I trained each and every one of my recruits accordingly. If the traffic had to be secure, we used land lines or cell phones, coordinated through dispatch. Other agencies had the ability to turn on encryption as needed.
I have always believed that the citizens we, as peace officers serve, have the right to monitor our operations. I think that there are circumstances that merit radio encryption, but non-encrypted radio traffic should resume after the critical incident.