Fort Collins Police to go encrypted

[johnls7424]

Every police department will soon be encrypted. Thats the new standard if departments can afford to upgrade and encrypt

 

[SCPD]

I recall APCO suggesting the use of it for homeland security reasons but not making it a standard or requirement practice, yet anyway.

 

[twoxland]

There is a reason I wont even consider starting a feed for my county. We only have off channels that are encrypted and I prefer it to stay that way. I refuse to be the reason my department's go encrypted.

 

[jhsands]

Every police department will soon be encrypted. Thats the new standard if departments can afford to upgrade and encrypt

ADP is free by standard with Moto APX series. Look at Motos website. Hardware AES, like Alaska State Police is not free, but you can hear the quality difference on the show.

 

[DrWhoVa]

I think maybe its time to silence the feeds, with more cities moving to encryption, then maybe the feeds should be cut. Ever since the advent of smartphones apps that to listen to radio stations or watch videos on them, then maybe it should be time to turn off the feeds.PHX PD here in AZ has closed off their all TAC channels which most were open except a couple or so which were already encrypted, i agree that TAC,SWAT,NARCS, GANG TASKFORCE, VICE and DETECTIVE talk groups should be encrypted. I agree on THAT!. If we want to keep listening, then lets close these feeds to keep our hobby going. The Chief says that right there, quoted from the Coloradoan

"Fort Collins Police Services is encrypting all routine radio traffic Tuesday so the public can’t listen in with SMARTPHONE APPS or scanners."

Look at whats the common denominator here SMARTPHONE APPS (Listening to LIVE FEEDS) not the scanners, but it is the scanners that provide the live feed to the smartphone,Look at Garfield and Fremont counties did, I bet it was because someone told the chief of police and the firechief or a city council member heard/was shown to them that their radio traffic could be heard on their smartphone. Here in Phoenix and in surrounding cities, most of the channels are encrypted.even with a delay turned on police will slowly shut the public out, even though we pay their salary and fund their communications with a sales/property tax. We should just be lucky now to listen to the few talk groups we have now as the day will come,I dont like it, but with live feeds I think, ALL TRAFFIC WILL BE SILENCED.. It will come.......




Now I will get off my soapbox and sit back and watch the fireworks again as this always comes up......and munch on some popcorn. Good day!...

73's

Trust me, it'll come. They've argued with me about the facts I've seen with my own two eyes, so saying something like this will just get the firestorm flying. So...I just sit back and watch the wave continue and listen to the griping and then shake my head.

You can lead the horse to water but you can't make it drink.

 

[DrWhoVa]

Bingo. We have a winner.

You, sir have won the all expenses paid trip to Hawaii!

And yes, we definitely have a winner...

 

[Arizona_Scanner]

Are the feeds the sole motivator behind the new push towards encryption? No way. The truth is, that the government, in general, prefers to operate in privacy. It's a "CYA thing". The recordings from the Dorner standoff are a PR nightmare for any department, no matter what the truth of them was. The new systems come bundled with encryption that is easy to use system-wide, and the temptation is already there.

BUT.....

There is little question that the smartphones / feeds are a great excuse to encrypt, and these things are speeding the demise of LE scanner monitoring. It would be in the best interest of the public, law enforcement, and scanner listeners, to take them down. Yes, encryption was coming long before the iphone, and it will continue to move into place without feeds and smart phone lookey-loos.....but there is no denying the role that the feeds are playing. The agencies going fully encrypted usually mention smart phones and feeds.

 

[tsalmrsystemtech]

The CCCS system went Encrypted over 10 years fully on all LE talkgroups. Period the END.

All agencies within the next 5 years will be fully ENCRYPTED. Its been said over and over and over again. Smartphones and the Internet are not the sole reasons but a contributing factor.

Our county went Encrypted even when the Internet was not even hardly around and smartphones were not even on the radar. Its a sign of the times and this industry is dying a slow death.

JUST FACE THE FACTS PEOPLE. Its a trend and it will never go away. Once they flip the switch they will never go back to the old days.

The only way we can get our hobby back is when some GENIUS in about 10 years figures out ENCRYPTION and breaks it.............

Also, ask yourself the question why we are not seeing any new radios out anymore. Its just not worth the new investment for companies to make a radio for people when they can't listen to anything anymore. Who wants to listen to TAXI cab drivers........

 

[ThunderPig]

encryption

Our local police department (Franklin, NC) will be going encrypted soon and the county fire depts will soon follow. I was told by a friend on the police department that my Facebook Page was the main reason. I post details about accidents, fires, road conditions and weather alerts and linked to a live feed that someone else had so people could keep themselves informed about what was going on.



I believe that our hobby of listening to public safety radio traffic will be a thing of the past in a few years.

(edited to correct spelling error)

 

[tsalmrsystemtech]

Our local police department (Franklin, NC) will be going encrypted soon and the county fire depts will soon follow. I was told by a friend on the police department that my Facebook Page was the main reason. I post details about accidents, fires, road conditions and weather alerts and linked to a live feed that someone else had so people could keep themselves informed about what was going on.



I believe that our hobby of listening to public safety radio traffic will be a thing of the past in a few years.

(edited to correct spelling error)

Yes Sir its happening like wild fire and it won't stop until everything is ENCRYPTED. Why do you think GRE scanners are not made anymore. No more R & D. Uniden is not coming out with any new models either. The industry is stuck in the mud and The GRE and Uniden Corporation is not going to spend anymore money on trying to build radios because everybody has smartphones and streaming apps and they won't sell radios if the demand is not there and the Corporations can't make a radio that can de-crypt. So the executives at these corporations are just saying no to building and spending money for a dying industry. Trust me all of police agencies nationwide and worldwide want this hobby gone so they can be in their own world. 99 percent of them at least.

So there you have it all in a nut shell boy and girls...... Enjoy what is left. 5 years and thats it......

P25 Phase I and II and X-2 Digital is the way of the future and the encrypted boards are all ready built in the radios now and its just a flip of the switch and Motorola is just saying here it is and its FREE Now.....

 

[jparks29]

what do they have to hide?

I'm so sick of this 'officer safety' BS argument.

 

[tsalmrsystemtech]

what do they have to hide?

I'm so sick of this 'officer safety' BS argument.

They are hiding their own corruption. It's an easy one to figure out. The technology is there and the federal grant money is their to provide to cities and counties for upgrades.

Its a Win Win for them. Then they don't have to answer to the public or the media and they can do whatever they want and not have to be accountable for their actions. What a great concept

Trust they flip the switch and its over and there is not a damm thing that anybody can do about it. People will just get use to it and they will stop crying over it and move on with something else in their life.

 

[DrWhoVa]

They are hiding their own corruption. It's an easy one to figure out. The technology is there and the federal grant money is their to provide to cities and counties for upgrades.

Its a Win Win for them. Then they don't have to answer to the public or the media and they can do whatever they want and not have to be accountable for their actions. What a great concept

Trust they flip the switch and its over and there is not a damm thing that anybody can do about it. People will just get use to it and they will stop crying over it and move on with something else in their life.

Since we're going to make such a blanket statement, then PROVE IT. It's so easy for someone to be anonymous on a board and shoot off at the mouth and not being able to prove it. And don't give me cases for last year, last month. Tell me RIGHT NOW what kind of corruption YOU HAVE SEEN WITH YOUR OWN TWO EYES.

Bet you can't...

 

[gunmasternd]

what do they have to hide?

I'm so sick of this 'officer safety' BS argument.

everything they are perfect They just dont want the public finding out their flaws.

I had a cop say i ran a stop sign. He was parked down the block and a tree blocked the whole sign. Plus he wrote the wrong address down.

I fought it and pointed it out. The cop goes im sorry i wrote the wrong address down wrong. I showed the judge pictures of where the copcar was parked and the tree blocking the view.

I lost and had to pay for the ticket! I stopped! bs! the next day the tree was cut down. plus it was at nite theres no way he couldve seen me stop. I was pissed Dont get me wrong ill take a ticket if im guilty!

I dont hate cops just some of them

 

[W9GC]

what do they have to hide?

A lot, apparently.

 

[PJH]

For all the conspiracy theorists, anti-law crowds, scanners-are-cool antenna wavers and the like...

Go down to your local police department and invoke your right to request via your state's freedom of information law a copy and/or listen to some random hour of police transmissions.

They are subject (general) to open records laws. If you feel as though they are making your life hell by doing this, return the favor.

I do not want to see anything encrypted - but as a citizen you have a right as anyone else to request such records under FOI/FOIL laws.

This is why unlike what MTS2000des states - it is NOT illegal to record and distribute public safety audio recordings. They are public records. The plain fact is that these days with Facebook and uneducated people running their less-than-informed opinions CREATING false facts presents such agencies with a PR problem more than a cover-up problem. Its hard to combat "50k likes" on Facebook before any official word comes out after an incident these days.

 

[jhsands]

For all the conspiracy theorists, anti-law crowds, scanners-are-cool antenna wavers and the like...

Go down to your local police department and invoke your right to request via your state's freedom of information law a copy and/or listen to some random hour of police transmissions.

They are subject (general) to open records laws. If you feel as though they are making your life hell by doing this, return the favor.

I do not want to see anything encrypted - but as a citizen you have a right as anyone else to request such records under FOI/FOIL laws.

This is why unlike what MTS2000des states - it is NOT illegal to record and distribute public safety audio recordings. They are public records. The plain fact is that these days with Facebook and uneducated people running their less-than-informed opinions CREATING false facts presents such agencies with a PR problem more than a cover-up problem. Its hard to combat "50k likes" on Facebook before any official word comes out after an incident these days.

Nothing like going once a week and requesting all 911 calls, all radio traffic, all traffic stop videos, all call logs, and et cetera. After a few people start and a couple months, you'll either all end up dead, they'll let you buy a $4k radio to put on the system, or, least likely, unencrypt. It depends on how much you cost them and they have to pay "reasonable costs".

Even in a small town with 10 cops on 4 shifts you're probably going to have someone spending AT LEAST 20 hours a week getting this info.

If they're encrypted, just pester them into decryption. How do you think Fort Collins would like 20 citizens asking for all that information a week? Think of the DVD and printing costs alone, then throw in the admin cost and encryption is no longer worth it when they have 72 hours to complete your request and you have a different citizen filing every day.

Also, be sure to go to every press release and ask why do we have to rely on your facts when a transparent city would let us listen in.

 

[MTS2000des]

Nothing like going once a week and requesting all 911 calls, all radio traffic, all traffic stop videos, all call logs, and et cetera. After a few people start and a couple months, you'll either all end up dead, they'll let you buy a $4k radio to put on the system, or, least likely, unencrypt. It depends on how much you cost them and they have to pay "reasonable costs".

Even in a small town with 10 cops on 4 shifts you're probably going to have someone spending AT LEAST 20 hours a week getting this info.

If they're encrypted, just pester them into decryption. How do you think Fort Collins would like 20 citizens asking for all that information a week? Think of the DVD and printing costs alone, then throw in the admin cost and encryption is no longer worth it when they have 72 hours to complete your request and you have a different citizen filing every day.

Also, be sure to go to every press release and ask why do we have to rely on your facts when a transparent city would let us listen in.

That's all great, but most states allow gov'ts to charge fees for reproducing documents, recordings, etc to cover those man hours and equipment used to produce them. So how many people do you think are really willing to *PAY* and go through the hoops needed to get them?

And it's not like calling Papa John's and ordering a pizza. There is a process, and it is time spent filling out the request, submitting it to the right person(s), enclosing remittance, then going to pick them up in person.

Nice pipe dream, thinking that thousands will inundate some agency with endless requests the way the banksters loaded the courts down with fake mortgage documents, but back to reality....

encryption is here to stay.

 

[JoeyC]

Think of the DVD and printing costs alone, then throw in the admin cost and encryption is no longer worth it when they have 72 hours to complete your request and you have a different citizen filing every day.

Don't fool yourself. Those costs will passed along to you.

 

[PJH]

For the departments I have worked at, the costs are typically fixed as you are not allowed to "price people out of the market".

For copies of audio/video etc - there is a fixed price. For copies of reports its usually $1 or $2 a page, etc. To review at the department the cost should be or is usually zero as its public inspection.

The work for paper stuff is typically handled by a records clerk so impact would be minimal. Depending on the size of the department for audio/video that could involve a clerk, a town IT staffer, a police officer and/or supervisor and would be more involved so the inconvenience factor will vary by department.