At the top of the Oregon Radio Discussion Forum, where the various threads and titles are posted, there is an announcement from Wayne H which is titled, "Does your employer read these forums?" It can be found here, The RadioReference.com Forums - Announcements in Forum : Oregon Radio Discussion Forum
In the announcment, he makes a very good point by reminding subscribers that we are each individually responsible for what we post, including information that may be considered confidential by the employer, or otherwise subject to a Non Disclosure Agreement. In other words, in some jurisdictions, if you work for a public safety agency and post the talk group ID's for certain channels online, it may be considered inappropriate by your agency for you to do so... even though a private citizen who discovers the talk group on his own by listening legally with a scanner at home could post that same information without any concern, since he doesn't work for the agency himself.
I'm not aware of any agencies in the Portland area that prohibit their employees from posting talk group ID's or any other information which could legally be considered open to public information disclosure laws, although by the same token, it makes sense that there are some things that "the public doesn't need to know" with regard to maintaining community safety and security. For example, it doesn't make sense to make it easy for drug dealers to monitor all DEA communications in the hopes that they can evade being caught... which explains why some radio transmissions are now encrypted, like the Secret Service.
By the same token, the airwaves are considered public - hence why frequencies can be looked up in the FCC databases - and scanning as a hobby remains completely legal, as it should be. And broadcasting things like road crews, parks and rec, or garbage and sewer departments without encryption are unlikely to create concerns over privacy or security. Then again, there are those who would say that being able to hear "routine police communication," like traffic stops or normal response calls, does not pose a threat either - unless they're broadcasting an active undercover operation. And I would agree.
Generally, I fall into the camp which says "the airwaves are public," and that so long as scanners are legal, the average hobbyist (like myself) should be able to listen to anything that doesn't pertain to high level national or local security, or an undercover operation, or any other sensitive activity where the police action could be compromised.... at which point, it should be encrypted and not available to the public. And I can certainly understand why an employee of such an agency should not be allowed to post information about how, where, and when the public can hear such undercover activities when they are not encrypted. But by the same token, most of us out here are law abiding citizens who care about our community, and we listen to our scanners because it's interesting, and we like to know what's going on. And there are no laws, to my knowledge, which prohibit posting a question - or an answer, in forums like these - regarding certain talk groups or other radio information, so long as we have discovered that information on our own, through active listening, or through the public record, or any other legal means.
All of that being said, Wayne H basically says (paraphrasing), "if you have any concerns about your employer seeing what you have posted, you should post it anonymously," because "we are not responsible for cleaning up after you if realize you've made a mistake" and want it removed later on. So bearing that in mind, if I worked for a public safety agency, I probably wouldn't post anything here (out of caution), unless I knew for sure it was public information (which, in most cases, it is), and even then, I agree with him that I would want to do it anonymously, just in case. And I certainly wouldn't post anything that might compromise sensitive police activity or public safety - because ethically speaking, it's wrong to do that, regardless.
I'm sorry to be long-winded here, but this whole thing really got me thinking. I do not work in public safety now, and I haven't before - although I would like to someday, which is part of why I listen. I have no reason to be concerned about posting anonymously, and all of my posts so far have included my user name, Pro94Pdx. But I'm not sure there is even a way to post anonymously - at least, I've never seen it. You have to be a registered member of the site to post, I believe --- or a paying subscriber if you want to use the database for programming your scanner, as with the Starsoft programs like Win96. So to post anything, your "name" (user name) has to appear.
If anyone has any thoughts on this, or can clarify the rules, or etiquite, I'm interested to learn more. How do you post anonymously if you wish to? And what is appropriate to post, or not to post? I know these forums are carefully monitored by folks in charge, so presummably anything that shouldn't be here is removed. But by the same token, It's important to me to abide the the community standards, even though I'm not a frequent poster, because I want to be respectful of those policies.
Let me know... I'm still a relative newbie at this.
In the announcment, he makes a very good point by reminding subscribers that we are each individually responsible for what we post, including information that may be considered confidential by the employer, or otherwise subject to a Non Disclosure Agreement. In other words, in some jurisdictions, if you work for a public safety agency and post the talk group ID's for certain channels online, it may be considered inappropriate by your agency for you to do so... even though a private citizen who discovers the talk group on his own by listening legally with a scanner at home could post that same information without any concern, since he doesn't work for the agency himself.
I'm not aware of any agencies in the Portland area that prohibit their employees from posting talk group ID's or any other information which could legally be considered open to public information disclosure laws, although by the same token, it makes sense that there are some things that "the public doesn't need to know" with regard to maintaining community safety and security. For example, it doesn't make sense to make it easy for drug dealers to monitor all DEA communications in the hopes that they can evade being caught... which explains why some radio transmissions are now encrypted, like the Secret Service.
By the same token, the airwaves are considered public - hence why frequencies can be looked up in the FCC databases - and scanning as a hobby remains completely legal, as it should be. And broadcasting things like road crews, parks and rec, or garbage and sewer departments without encryption are unlikely to create concerns over privacy or security. Then again, there are those who would say that being able to hear "routine police communication," like traffic stops or normal response calls, does not pose a threat either - unless they're broadcasting an active undercover operation. And I would agree.
Generally, I fall into the camp which says "the airwaves are public," and that so long as scanners are legal, the average hobbyist (like myself) should be able to listen to anything that doesn't pertain to high level national or local security, or an undercover operation, or any other sensitive activity where the police action could be compromised.... at which point, it should be encrypted and not available to the public. And I can certainly understand why an employee of such an agency should not be allowed to post information about how, where, and when the public can hear such undercover activities when they are not encrypted. But by the same token, most of us out here are law abiding citizens who care about our community, and we listen to our scanners because it's interesting, and we like to know what's going on. And there are no laws, to my knowledge, which prohibit posting a question - or an answer, in forums like these - regarding certain talk groups or other radio information, so long as we have discovered that information on our own, through active listening, or through the public record, or any other legal means.
All of that being said, Wayne H basically says (paraphrasing), "if you have any concerns about your employer seeing what you have posted, you should post it anonymously," because "we are not responsible for cleaning up after you if realize you've made a mistake" and want it removed later on. So bearing that in mind, if I worked for a public safety agency, I probably wouldn't post anything here (out of caution), unless I knew for sure it was public information (which, in most cases, it is), and even then, I agree with him that I would want to do it anonymously, just in case. And I certainly wouldn't post anything that might compromise sensitive police activity or public safety - because ethically speaking, it's wrong to do that, regardless.
I'm sorry to be long-winded here, but this whole thing really got me thinking. I do not work in public safety now, and I haven't before - although I would like to someday, which is part of why I listen. I have no reason to be concerned about posting anonymously, and all of my posts so far have included my user name, Pro94Pdx. But I'm not sure there is even a way to post anonymously - at least, I've never seen it. You have to be a registered member of the site to post, I believe --- or a paying subscriber if you want to use the database for programming your scanner, as with the Starsoft programs like Win96. So to post anything, your "name" (user name) has to appear.
If anyone has any thoughts on this, or can clarify the rules, or etiquite, I'm interested to learn more. How do you post anonymously if you wish to? And what is appropriate to post, or not to post? I know these forums are carefully monitored by folks in charge, so presummably anything that shouldn't be here is removed. But by the same token, It's important to me to abide the the community standards, even though I'm not a frequent poster, because I want to be respectful of those policies.
Let me know... I'm still a relative newbie at this.
