Another reason why live streaming should be stopped now

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kb3jqq

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Don't make my $1200 of scanners a paperweight!

New Hampshire Union Leader (Manchester)

23 July 2018

Police: Encrypting scanners thwarted criminals

BYLINE: KEVIN LANDRIGAN New Hampshire Union Leader

SECTION: PAGE1; Pg. 1

LENGTH: 934 words

Manchester: New Police Chief Carlo Capano reveals how encrypting radios
foiled “The Squad.”

MANCHESTER -- The sneaky intel of those leading a ruthless drug and
prostitution ring two years ago convinced new Manchester Police Chief Carlo
Capano that it had been essential for his officers to go radio silent even
if that meant shutting out the public.

In early 2016, former Police Chief Nick Willard had tasked Capano, his No.
2 man, to complete the encryption of all police radio communication.

But during a recent interview with the Union Leader, Capano revealed for
the first time that during this exploration he discovered a sinister
activity had taken place.

“I couldn’t talk about this back then because we had pending criminal
cases. There are some details I still can’t talk about because we have one
case left but I can draw you a picture of what we were seeing and it was
scary,” Capano said.

“We were having a tremendous amount of shootings in the city, 21 shooting
incidents in 17 days, I believe was that number. With that going on several
of the arrests were made and those shooting events led to a homicide.”

On the streets of the Queen City in 2015 and 2016, the tables had been
turned on Manchester police officers.

Instead, police were the ones being spied upon as an elaborate and very
cunning criminal enterprise was conducting surveillance on them. And they
were using the Manchester Police Department’s own communications equipment
to do it.

This was the work of the group that became known as “The Squad,” a
merciless gang that kept an iron grip on drugs and prostitution by shooting
up houses of perceived rival drug dealers, ordering hits and cutting the
faces of women whom they forced into dealing drugs and turning tricks.

The leader, Brandon Griffin, 32, was indicted on 101 charges. One woman, a
heroin addict, told police that Griffin ordered one of his gang members to
cut her face with a razor because she owed him $200.

Capano said it was only after arresting and interrogating some from The
Squad that they learned all their members were schooled on how to track the
movements of police officers by listening in on Manchester police radio
chat.

‘Hanging out,’ listening in

“Essentially we learned that the people involved in The Squad were
monitoring our radio system through scanners/phone apps and they would
determine when and where they would commit crimes depending on where police
patrols were not located,” Capano said.

This became an essential part of The Squad’s operating protocol to assert
and maintain their dominance, Capano said.

“They were able to determine our cruiser routes, what part of the city the
officers were currently at, and our day-to-day activities simply by
listening and monitoring our radio activity,” Capano said.

“During the interviews, we were informed that they would listen to the
scanner application while they were just ‘hanging out’ in order to better
understand our daily functions.”

The encryption of all radio frequencies was completed around Labor Day of
2016 and Capano said the criminals told his detectives it was a smart move.

“Members of The Squad said that encryption of the radios was the best thing
we did as it prevented them from listening to the police,” Capano said.

The new chief said he had already thought encryption was needed to provide
another level of security for the officers and to prevent “extremely
personal information” from being sent out over open radio channels.

Capano said all public safety agencies should consider taking such steps.

“I am surprised the fire (department) has not encrypted as well. In this
day and age with technology it’s amazing what someone can get on you by
listening to all that, your license plates, your date of birth, your Social
Security number, even private health conditions and how that can be used
against you,” Capano said.

Controversial move

Nearly two years after those home scanners became useless to monitor
Manchester police activity, the topic remains a controversial one.

It arose at the Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting last week.

Ward 6 Alderman Elizabeth Moreau said the city could do a better job of
getting information out even quicker with alerts on social media that don’t
put officers at risk, for events like water main breaks, traffic tie-ups or
scheduled road maintenance.

Capano said that can happen but it’s a balancing act.

“When we are talking about certain situations we can’t push it out as
quickly as some in the public want us to,” Capano told the aldermen.

“Social media has created a different animal. You have people soliciting
information whenever they see two police cars, when you get that everybody
wants some instantaneous response from us. We just don’t have the ability
to give out that information in real time.”

That’s why Manchester police decided to post all calls of service on the
web site and update it automatically every four hours, he said.

“It won’t give them everything but there’s a description,” Capano said.

“If there is a major car accident and intersection shutdown I know that is
pushed out immediately.”

The chief doesn’t look back and regret the decision to encrypt radio
communications but instead embraces it.

“Is it an officer safety issue? Absolutely. Does it protect the public?
Absolutely. Were we right to make this decision? Absolutely.”

All that said, Capano gets the continued protest over the decision.

“Do I understand that people used to listen to the radio and liked it?”
Capano summed up. “Of course I do. My father likes to listen to the scanner
as well.”

klandrigan@unionleader.com
 

T-Santon

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It seems there isn't anything that can be done to stop this growing trend of encryption...

But as someone who values government transparency (especially from law enforcement); I will not live, work, or spend any money in a town/county/state that encrypts their police traffic. At this point, that is really the only thing I can personally do to fight it.

I just hope that I'll be dead before I run out of places to live, lol
 

mmckenna

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Don't make my $1200 of scanners a paperweight!

It's not just sites like this. There isn't something magical about streaming radio traffic over the internet that makes it much easier for criminals to listen in.
Just like you, criminals can buy/steal scanners anytime they want and run their own streams.

Who knows, maybe there is a certain criminal element that visits this site, asking questions about programming scanners?
With all the posts I see about people wanting a way to decrypt traffic, it makes me wonder.

I'm sure scanner apps play a role, but nothing stopping anyone from buying a scanner or setting up a NAS on an old commercial radio.

Encryption is coming, like it or not. Police departments can push out data to the public using many different systems.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo...cy-blue-alerts-for-threats-to-law-enforcement
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/01/18/2018-00595/blue-alert-eas-event-code
https://www.chp.ca.gov/news-alerts/blue-alert
 

mikewazowski

Forums Manager/Global DB Admin
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Please use the existing thread in the Tavern that was specifically created to discuss this issue.

Thanks.
 
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