South Florida Encryption!

I want to post a news article here. Now even tho it is from Connecticut, we are starting to find that South Florida public safety departments are starting to switch to the trend of encrypting radio traffic more and more commonly now as new Systems are being switched to over the next year... Interesting article on Encryption and public safety I thought we ALL could benefit from! We are starting to see the trend now as Boynton PD is encrypted, Fort Lauderdale and Plantation are in current discussions of encrypting, PBSO is talking about encrypting when their new system switch by mid-next year sometime... Us radio and scanner users are slowly being faded out... And quite frankly they are blaming online scanner sites like Broadcastify of being able to let anyone with a smartphone all over the world hear personal details and license plates being ran... We NEED to take the encryption standard seriously!! We have been blessed all these years that South Florida agencies haven't encrypted when they really could have. But now with all the police-involved shootings and violence against police, they are going to start to!

Some Connecticut emergency crews turn off radio encryption

I know we've beat this topic to death.

But honestly we can't blame Broadcastify for the demise of our hobby thanks to Encryption. These companies are out to make a buck. The blame can be put solely on the FEEDERS that are selfishly airing these channels on websites such as these. These guys are screwing themselves in the long run as they will only enjoy it for a few more months or years. After that when the big E goes in full affect, they'll be sitting with an expensive scanner listening to Mall Cops on DMR. Then they'll stream that, then that will get encrypted. See the pattern.

These feeders don't understand that the common thug can listen to dispatch channels via their phones and possibly give them a upper hand. Mark my words, one day, a crime will happen and that department or family member will sue the feeder if in fact the subject was using the app to his advantage. I'm not a lawyer but I'm pretty sure you can be held for "aiding and abetting" even if you're not present on the scene of the crime. It's a matter of time before some lawyer or family wants a paycheck and seek damages from the feeder.

I strongly believe that we, scanner hobbyists, can turn things around and STOP these feeders from streaming PD. If we stop this, the departments will not have to worry about the public hearing their conversations via a phone or app. They have better things to do then to worry about the hobbyists. They can use that money for better equipment etc. Spending money on encryption because of the feeders is a total waste of our taxes.

Your average Joe on the street will not have the time or the want to learn about scanners and how they work. We have the technical know how on how to set up and use these scanners and dongles. These scanners are not cheap and not easily programmable, for the average Joe to learn overnight. They are not plug and play like the analogs. Were all you need is a frequency and you're set. Even the digital ones that say enter your zip code and done. It doesn't work that way.

Moral of the story....

STOP FEEDING POLICE DEPARTMENTS TO WEBSITES and "Let's Make America Great Again"....

I am not saying that I blame sites like Broadcastify, since it is actually owned by RadioReference. I used to have my own Fire-Rescue feed on there. The news articles blame sites like Broadcastify, I don't! In the beginning I thought it was great I could log in from vacation and hear my counties' happenings in my spare time. But in retrospect, it turned out, just like all good things, that people have to use it for adverse reasons and ruin it for the rest of us... My thing is, here in Palm Beach County anyways, we don't have any departments steaming online anywhere, however Broward County is fully covered online. I know Broadcastify meant well, but it's providing a platform for these Feed Providers to put their feeds online. In turn, it's creating animosity towards Law Enforcement and Public Safety because the patient addresses or driver license info even social security #s being ran, are all broadcasted over the world for all to hear... Sooner or later, when the Big E is implemented everywhere, there won't BE any feeds to host on Broadcastify, thus no more scanners to be sold or enthusiasts to hear anything anymore. It's a vicious cycle that is just going to get more vicious... However, my article I posted above, lists good reasons why NOT to encrypt!

Totally agree with you David, 100 %...

Already being discussed in the General Scanning forum.