So, what I hear some saying is that we should trust govt to release to us what they think we should know? This is one of those...every time there is a shooting, lets make more restrictive gun laws. Some will always jump at the first chance to take away something. I heard two different suicide attempts yesterday, address's broadcast in the clear. What does that mean? I could care less, it's just information. If it was a family member, odds are we knew it was a possibility anyway. The agencies aren't stupid, they know when to move to a talk-a-round group or to use their cell phone. They do both in Arlington all the time.
Bottom line, I'm just not comfortable with local govt agencies in which all their comms are 100% off-line. Also, if they were honest about their reasons....it still wouldn't set better but I would have more respect, but for these guys with brass on their shoulders to make up this crap about blah blah blah, it just is complete BS.
Does this really make officers safer? In the grand scheme of things? Again, why do so many cities opt not to encrypt when they have the chance to do so? Things are usually blown out of proportion, one incident happens in a PD, say a patrol cop realizes a gang banger was listening to his smart phone scanner before he arrives. This one incident is then heralded for many months as the way it is. How many times does a cop show up to a drug house, not knowing it is a drug house and get blown away hollywood style, with a guy with a uzi in one hand and a cell phone in the other pressed to his ear?
If you know or have police who are family/friends, then you realize their mindset changes as soon as they are sworn into that culture. It is 'us against them' and THEM don't need to know anything about what we are doing. That paints a broad brush, but most will shake their heads up and down with this statement.
Is this a liberty issue? Do we have a right as tax paying citizens in our local communities to know what is going on in our local govt, even if it poses a small risk to those govt employees? Or, should we trust them or the media to tell us at some point what they think we should hear?
K