Losing another agency to encryption

Thanks to a certain scanner user in the Sulphur area posting information about on-going investigations, BOLO's, and officer locations to a certain Facebook page, I've heard that Sulphur Police Department are in the process of reprogramming their radios and encrypting all of their talk groups. Lake Charles already went encrypted a little over a year ago due to the same type of problems. The scanner hobby is to listen people not repeat and blast what all you hear!

With the recent beating by The San Bernardino County, California, Sheriff’s Office of a suspect after surrending to officers, being beaten shown on video

Some local fools told the media about radio comms heard on their scanners. So I would not be surprised that this agency goes fully encrypted in the near future just a sign of things to come for this fading hobby

bad news

Was real sorry to hear about this crap. Lake Charles is semi encrypted on their dispatch and from the little that goes out in the clear we are missing out on a lot. I heard a 30 min state police incident which I will not reveal on here out of responsibility to the hobby but I would have missed a lot if that were encrypted.

Just wait for the next big oil spill or hurricane and every agency will be on the analog un-encrypted VHF and UHF frequencies set aside for environmental protection.

Good time to start laying in some DMR gear too, same freqs.

Inter-operability always knocks down capability a bit.

PACNWDude said:

Just wait for the next big oil spill or hurricane and every agency will be on the analog un-encrypted VHF and UHF frequencies set aside for environmental protection.

Good time to start laying in some DMR gear too, same freqs.

Inter-operability always knocks down capability a bit.

Click to expand...

Umm way off friend. LWIN, and MSWIN were born due to hurricanes, and both have proved to operate almost flawlessly for interop during hurricanes as well as oil spills. These types of systems are here to stay. With not only the ability for full statewide interop, but multi state interop AKA GulfWIN which combines TXWARN,LWIN, MSWIN, AFRRN, and even if needed AWIN using the technology, which has been tested, and proven, I think your doing a lot of wishful thinking. Yes at times we would all love to go back to the days of only hearing one side of scratchy dispatches on Lo band.... Wait, no, most of us are not. (Insert humor here!)

How many years of college training would it take to learn how to wtite a program to crack that 40 bit ADP which most of these agencies use? Just asking for info purposes only?

On LWIN its AES. 256 bit. And its not the education, its the computing power. It would take at least 7 supercomputers in sync to crack an single "letter" in the key, and by the time you got that one done, its switched to another key. Most agencies switch keys minimum of 2 times daily, and some users switch every time they do an op. Just a little FYI. I am not an fan of full time encryption, but it is what it is. The real key to ending encryption full time is getting to the powers that be. But with all the current anti cop sentiment out there, the push will be for even more security. Lobby your lawmakers, and those elected official you can and in the meantime, just enjoy hearing what you can.