This is a great article on why encryption for everyday traffic is a bad idea! Makes some very good points, maybe we can get this over to someone with some decision power at the PHX PD or Mayors office.
Police Radio Encryption: Not Secure, A Transparency Failure, A Public Safety Nightmare | The Cardinal
I've read the paper this article is referring to (along with a couple of others) that discuss in relative detail the vulnerabilities that exist in P25 systems, and they are very real and could be exploited by well funded organized criminals or worse, a terrorist organization (and if you think the Mexican Mafia or Al Qaeda isn't well funded and organized, think again). The only reason they don't exploit these weaknesses is because they don't need to. If that need ever arises though, I don't see any real reason why they wouldn't, and that is something that should be addressed. These are after all, public safety radio systems and if they fail, it's not just the first responders that are in danger - we all are.
That being said, there is an equally well thought out rebuttal to this article that explains why a standard encrypted P25 radio system is "secure enough" and the idea of some average-joe criminal making use of these vulnerabilities is highly unlikely. I tend to agree. We also have ourselves to blame for making it so easy for some dumb crook to listen in on just about any smartphone for free. There have been instances of crooks using the scanner feeds here on RR to evade the police. Perhaps a 10 minute delay should be built into PD streams to prevent this sort of thing or at least discourage criminals from using the scanner streams to avoid the police. I think that's a worthwhile suggestion to Lindsay before we all get a bad rap for "helping the bad guys". Any future stream that I put on RR will have such a delay built in at my end, regardless. I think that's the responsible thing to do.
I think eventually a mandate will come down from the federal level that all police radio traffic must be encrypted by law. If and when that day comes, then perhaps these known vulnerabilities will be of use to those of us who want to accept the challenge of being able to listen in anyway. I only hope that anyone who decides to pursue that path keeps the ability to do that to themselves, not just for the future of the hobby but for the safety of the officers we all enjoy listening to.
Sure, I'm sad to see the C-deck talkgroups go encrypted but there's still plenty to listen to that's in the clear, for now. I say we just enjoy what we can and not rock the boat. A strongly worded letter to the Mayor or the Chief of Police would more likely result in scanner listeners being shut out entirely than restore our ability to monitor these talkgroups. I think we tend to forget that being able to listen in isn't a right - it's a privilege. And it's a privilege that has, apparently, been abused. This should serve as fair warning to all scanner listeners that it's up to us to protect our hobby and the best way to do that is to be good stewards of the ability to monitor our local public safety agences and do what we can to ensure that ability doesn't fall into the wrong hands.
-AZ