Yreka PD

[Progline]

I passed thru Yreka twice this week, it appears they have gone P25, and fully encrypted.

 

[mmckenna]

Interesting. I'm up that way a few times a year, although I've never tried to listen to them. For a small city, going P25 encrypted seems like overkill.
I guess they had some money burning a hole in their pockets.

 

[scannermike11]

almost every week i see some pd going encrypted i thing in about 15 years they are going to encrypted
that is why i listen to other things now

 

[kma371]

I passed thru Yreka twice this week, it appears they have gone P25, and fully encrypted.

Same frequencies?

 

[Progline]

Yes, I programmed the scanner from the RR database using Win500. I "assume" its the Yreka PD, but being scrambled, who knows?

 

[norcalscan]

That's what it looks like. Their 9/7/17 city council agenda and minutes show the request for new "scrambled" radio equipment to regain their element of surprise on the bad guys.

That's frustrating for such a small rural dept to abandon their partners in the fire dept, sheriff and CHP departments who will be backing them up day after day on calls all in the name of fear and element of surprise. Go P25 - that's fine. Have a second channel or switch that can go encrypted for the big calls, sure. But daily radio traffic going encrypted is such a loss for the community, for interoperability, and the safety of the community as a whole. Their mutual aid scanners will be silent, in an area that all the agencies monitor each other to be aware of what's happening and assist. An area where Hornbrook got burned over this year, and Weed burned over a few years ago, both requiring rapid law mutual aid for immediate evacs.

P25 with encryption in a rural department is a selfish move. Period.

From their minutes on 9/7/17...
Request to appropriate funding in the amount of $75,871 to replace Yreka Police Department’s
field communications equipment.
Chief of Police Brian Bowles reported to the Council that technology changes - and with that is
the need to replace our radios that are at obsolescence in use and repair. Yreka Police
Department uses a publicly monitored radio frequency where everybody (including the bad guys)
know where we are and how we are responding to a call for service.
As officers, we have no element of surprise when responding to calls: be it domestic violence,
man with a gun, burglary or robbery response. The public knows where we are, how many
officers are on duty and what we are responding to 24 hours a day.
You have heard me say before, that the Police Department has had significant public safety and
officer safety issues with people calling in false calls for service to lure officers away from an
area so the criminal activity can occur.
Many agencies have gone to computers in the cars but this is expensive and requires continuous
replacement of equipment. We evaluated both the computer and the radio option and we are
commending the radio option.
The radio option includes a complete Motorola handheld radio and patrol car unit radio upgrade
that will give us the ability to have a scrambled channel. The new equipment is mission critical
and is built to last (estimated durability is approximately 25 years). In conjunction with the
vendor, we ran a one-day demo testing of the equipment on our radio frequency, repeater tower,
and scramble the channel. The test results from the pilot were successful and I am
recommending we proceed.
9-7-17 12445
9-7-17 12445
By upgrading our radios with new ones that are capable of having a scrambled frequency, we
will give back the element of surprise to the officer.
Project cost to replace all handheld and patrol unit radios will be $75,871, for which the Yreka
Police Department spent approximately $7,000 on equipment programing and testing from their
2016-2017 budget.
Following Council discussion, Councilmember Bicego moved to approve the budget request of
$75,871.
Councilmember Shaskey seconded the motion, and upon roll call, the following voted YEA:
Baird, Bicego, Freeman, Kegg, and Shaskey.
Mayor Freeman thereupon declared the motion carried.

 

[gmclam]

Yreka PD is clearly not thinking this fully out

That's frustrating for such a small rural dept to abandon their partners in the fire dept, sheriff and CHP departments who will be backing them up day after day on calls all in the name of fear and element of surprise. Go P25 - that's fine. Have a second channel or switch that can go encrypted for the big calls, sure. But daily radio traffic going encrypted is such a loss for the community, for interoperability, and the safety of the community as a whole. Their mutual aid scanners will be silent, in an area that all the agencies monitor each other to be aware of what's happening and assist. An area where Hornbrook got burned over this year, and Weed burned over a few years ago, both requiring rapid law mutual aid for immediate evacs.

Well stated. I wholly agree.

...Department uses a publicly monitored radio frequency where everybody (including the bad guys) know where we are and how we are responding to a call for service.

And all the "bad guys" need to do is monitor the repeater input frequencies. They'll only get a signal when you're close by. No need to decrypt what is being said. Mutual Aid support meanwhile while be dependent on communication through your dispatcher.

 

[zz0468]

Mutual Aid support meanwhile while be dependent on communication through your dispatcher.

False narrative... A relatively minor amount of thought can mitigate any adverse effect of encryption on mutual aid. It's not difficult.

 

[scannermike11]

a lot of small PD departments like to keep everything away from the public

 

[norcalscan]

False narrative... A relatively minor amount of thought can mitigate any adverse effect of encryption on mutual aid. It's not difficult.

Certainly with proper training, larger incidents requiring mutual aid can be handled on various mutual aid frequencies such as CALAW1, VLAW31, VTACS, or even shared agency's licensed alternate channels. However every single one of those interops requires the traffic to be in the clear, negating the very thing they are trying to accomplish.

However there is very little option for proper training up here in the "real" northern California. Nearest radio vendors are hours away and they haven't exhibited proper subject matter expertise in the past regarding the true tactical needs of a law enforcement dept. More like glorified sales engineers with radio helpdesk skills. So there's the first handicap. Next handicap are the officers themselves. Are they willing to learn, to take whatever radio training they get and actually understand the relevancy of how it applies to their daily practices, and the larger big picture? It takes a very good trainer to listen and interpret the needs of the department, apply it technically/programatically to their radio "solution", and then train them, with proper comprehension, how their radios fit their operations. That doesn't exist with the radio shops up here. Period.

My own department got in a 110mph chase down I5 last week. They were solo agency on the chase, operating on their repeater. I have a repeater on the same RX antenna as the PD, I know the site's limitations and range. Sure enough 15-20 minutes into the pursuit, going into a neighboring county, they had to terminate the pursuit "due to degraded radio communications." CHP had not taken the pursuit yet. Not only did the dispatcher not "think down the road" and phone agencies ahead for assistance, our units did not think (or have know-how, or have it even programmed in their radios) to move to the neighboring agency radio system. They had plenty of time to think about it, but nobody up here understands the capabilities of the $6000 DHS-grant-funded radio on their hip.

That's how our rural depts operate up here, no training or true comprehension of their radios. Everybody scans everybody on their vehicle scanners and that's their interop. PD talks in the blind on their agency channel, SO hears it on his scanner and replies back on his agency channel, PD hears response on their scanner and they interop via scanners. CHP scans and can start rolling mutual aid before their dispatchers even make the call. Fish and Game wardens, USFS LE, etc all scan and are situationally aware of what's happening around them. It's survival in our rural world. Immediate backup happens when the sheriff deputy screams 10-99 in their radio, nearest agency backup is 20 minutes away, but fish and game is unbeknownst around the corner, situationally aware and suddenly a second badge with gun is on scene 45 seconds after the 10-99. That is how you survive out here.

Yreka PD, supporting a population of 7600, would have two, at most three units (two traffic and 1 sergeant/upper-rank) on the road. Likely a single combo dispatcher/call-taker. In a hot call with immediate-need assistance, all they are getting are themselves. Siskiyou Sheriff, Yreka CHP, USFS LE and CA Fish and Game could all supply badges with guns from literally right around the corner, and yet their notifications will be indirect through their dispatcher, and at least 2-4 minutes delayed. That same dispatcher handling their own officers in need, sudden uptake in witnessing 911's, and making notifications (and continuing updates) to neighboring agencies. Good luck with that YPD. Good luck mutual aid staying safe with getting 3minute old info relayed to you three people deep.

24hr encryption selfishly rips that vital situational awareness out of everyone's hands.

Stay safe!

 

[Kirk]

I just want to know what portables they’re buying that they think will last 25 years.