Don't pay any attention to paranoia as is in that post (The same poster caused dozens of media/tow operators to - in some cases - throw out their EDACS radios when they started patching on the Motorola system 5 years ago, and anyone on Scanont surely remembers the lovely message in regards to Durham going digital...)
I also have it on good authority that the Police Services Union is VERY against encryption for the regular "operations" channels. In Toronto, Tow Trucks use radios to hear about accidents as they happen. Traffic is already bad enough, imagine if now they have to wait half an hour for a tow truck for every accident, instead of how it is now (often the tows get there before the Police do).
It has nothing to do with hiding their system from the media (although, in defense of the Police, there is nothing more annoying than when media shows up on scene, especially certain renegade shooters who think they run the show), it is about officer SAFETY.
I work in the field and I can tell you, I'm always second guessing some things I put over the radio because you never know who is listening. It sure would be nice to know that nobody except those authorized are hearing what I am saying.
And, that $35 million dollars? Good luck. Do you have any idea how many radios we're talking about, if we include Works, Hydro, Parks/Rec, TTC, etc...? Figure an encrypted radio costing $5,000. At last check, the 3c08 system alone has over 12,000 radio IDs enabled. That's $60 million JUST for the 3c08 system. Then you add on the over 4,000 radios that I've seen on the Toronto Hydro system, now we're up to $80 million. Throw in 1,000 for the TTC, now we're talking upwards of $85 million. This is BEFORE *any* system equipment is factored in. $35 million over 3 years is $105 million. I would expect that a fully encrypted system for EVERY city user, you would be looking at - realistically - $200 million.
That's not to say it won't happen, but I'm certainly not holding my breath.