Arapahoe County Agencies Moving to ENC

[scanlist]

Greenwood Village units in the field are now ENC. Dispatch is in the clear at the time of this post.

Also noted a couple of field units using ENC on Arapahoe Dispatch.

.

 

[Spitfire8520]

Greenwood Village units flipped the switch on a Friday the 13th at 21:07. Dispatch side is very inconsistent and seems to be a training or programming issue.

As posted elsewhere, pretty much all law enforcement in Arapahoe County is flipping the switch very soon.

Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office to block radio channels: Municipal police departments in county will likely follow suit around same time

The Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office will soon block the public from listening to its radio communications.

englewoodherald.net

Police radios blocked from the public in southeast Denver metro area

Multiple law enforcement agencies, including the Arapahoe and Douglas counties sheriff’s offices, are joining a growing trend of encrypting police scanners so the public cannot listen to cops…

www.denverpost.com

It is honestly easier to list the only agency that I am not sure about, and that is Glendale PD. They were present at the big Arapahoe County get together on encryption early in the year, but I think the journalists forgot that they are part of Arapahoe County.

 

[ShyFlyer]

Arapahoe County is planning to go dark on the 6th of January. There are still some radios out in the field that need replaced.

 

[Steve2003]

As of 8:30 MST:

• Englewood is now encrypted (except for Dispatch consoles which I imagine will go dark soon)
• ACSO 1 & 2 have a few more units using ENC (but still quite a few in the clear). Doesn't seem like they pre-programmed radios ahead of time and have everyone switch to the encrypted zone like Jeffco & Douglas.
• Glendale & Littleton have been in-the-clear thus far

Arapahoe County is planning to go dark on the 6th of January. There are still some radios out in the field that need replaced.

 

[ShyFlyer]

Arapahoe's plunge into darkness has been postponed. Some of the contract agencies discovered during the attempted switch over that they still weren't ready. A revised date has not been announced.

 

[4436time]

This leaves Boulder and Adams counties, Wheat Ridge, and CSP, any recent word on these?

 

[ShyFlyer]

Arapahoe has now joined the dark side as of just after 0700hrs this morning. The Dispatch side of the conversations are currently in the clear. No word on if this was intentional or not. Enjoy it while it lasts.

This leaves Boulder and Adams counties, Wheat Ridge, and CSP, any recent word on these?

Pure speculation, but I'd expect Adams County to be the next to go dark. I'm actually surprised that they didn't encrypt when Thornton did. There is a user here (can't recall the user name) that asserts a Trooper told him that CSP will intentionally remain in the clear for transparency purposes. I hope that's true, but even if it is accurate information, the winds of change can blow in at any time.

Sadly, at this point, we should just assume it's a question of when, not if, an agency will go dark.

 

[jimmnn]

This leaves Boulder and Adams counties, Wheat Ridge, and CSP, any recent word on these?

Gilpin, Weld, Clear Creek, Park, Teller, El Paso. Larimer there still lots to monitor on the front range.

 

[4436time]

Yes sir, and most FD is still around. It's certainly quieter now, though. Hate to see it and wonder whether the smaller/outlying towns and communities will follow suit.

 

[datainmotion]

Pure speculation, but I'd expect Adams County to be the next to go dark. I'm actually surprised that they didn't encrypt when Thornton did.
Sadly, at this point, we should just assume it's a question of when, not if, an agency will go dark.

Thankfully, Thornton was on there own when they did, mainly because they handle their own comms, not AdCom.
ACSO has had their radios prepped for ENC for some time now, and I would assume, are just waiting for the Muni Departments to update their radios.

 

[Spitfire8520]

It is honestly easier to list the only agency that I am not sure about, and that is Glendale PD.

Glendale went on Friday, January 10th shortly before 17:00.

Littleton is lagging, and the implementation by Arapahoe County and Greenwood Village is abnormal or very incomplete.

 

[Steve2003]

Was hoping Arapahoe County consoles would remain in the clear like they do (or used to do) in Garfield County. Sadly starting to see crypto on some of the dispatch consoles this AM.

 

[SouthMetroFirePIO]

Hello everyone,

Starting today MetCom Ops 15 (TG 1793) and MetCom Ops 16 (TG 2998) have been encrypted and renamed MetCom Blue Ops 15 and MetCom Blue Ops 16. MetCom will automatically assign one or both of those talk groups to active threat incidents, law enforcement standby incidents with weapons involved and SWAT incidents.

All other SMFR talk groups will remain in the clear and there are no plans for that to change.

I'm happy to answer any questions if you have any.

Thanks,
Eric Hurst
Public Information Officer

 

[Giddyuptd]

Hello everyone,

Starting today MetCom Ops 15 (TG 1793) and MetCom Ops 16 (TG 2998) have been encrypted and renamed MetCom Blue Ops 15 and MetCom Blue Ops 16. MetCom will automatically assign one or both of those talk groups to active threat incidents, law enforcement standby incidents with weapons involved and SWAT incidents.

All other SMFR talk groups will remain in the clear and there are no plans for that to change.

I'm happy to answer any questions if you have any.

Thanks,
Eric Hurst
Public Information Officer

Is fire personnel able to monitor Law Enforcement dispatch that is secured?

I ask as here we been planning to implement it on LE and allow dispatch and tac (non swat, detectives) to be heard by fire and ems.

Just seeing if others are following suit with public safety still being able to hear another.

 

[SouthMetroFirePIO]

Is fire personnel able to monitor Law Enforcement dispatch that is secured?

I ask as here we been planning to implement it on LE and allow dispatch and tac (non swat, detectives) to be heard by fire and ems.

Just seeing if others are following suit with public safety still being able to hear another.

Yes, all of the law enforcement agencies that SMFR works with have provided access to their primary channels.

 

[Steve2003]

Additionally, as of today Littleton PD is now encrypted (dispatch is in the clear for the time being but I suspect that won't last long)

Thanks for keeping us in the loop as well SouthMetroFire!

 

[medic9351301]

Are south metros haz mat incidents encrypted?
Was watching a "fleet friday" on haz mat 39 i think .
And the ff said the radios were encrypted just wondering.
i like monitoring south metro via the stream
thanks

 

[Spitfire8520]

Are south metros haz mat incidents encrypted?
Was watching a "fleet friday" on haz mat 39 i think .
And the ff said the radios were encrypted just wondering.
i like monitoring south metro via the stream
thanks

Generally the answer is no. Hazmat calls are assigned a normal unencrypted operations channel.

South Metro had no encrypted talkgroups at the time of filming of that specific video, but they have since reconfigured two of their talkgroups (Blue 15 & Blue 16) to be fully encrypted to support response to law enforcement standby calls. South Metro's personnel are smart and their training for radios is above average, but radios are hard and hearsay can sometimes spread around about how they work.

Feed wise there is the possibly a call being obscured from the official South Metro feed if they happen to use anything past Ops 9 (Ops 11 - Ops 19) as they are used for training most of the time and therefore not scanned by the feed. Standard operations channels are assigned in order, so hitting those higher channels means that more than 4 operations channels were being used simultaneously, and therefore the feed would have already become a unintelligible due to the amount of radio traffic.

 

[SouthMetroFirePIO]

Are south metros haz mat incidents encrypted?
Was watching a "fleet friday" on haz mat 39 i think .
And the ff said the radios were encrypted just wondering.
i like monitoring south metro via the stream
thanks

Hazmat 38 is equipped with radios that can be toggled to encrypted communication on any of SMFR's radio channels. They are labeled differently and stored in a designated compartment, so they won't be confused with the standard issue radios. If a CBRNE event occurred or if a crime is suspected that involves hazardous materials, encrypted communication could be used between the techs in the hot zone and the command staff to keep sensitive information confidential until it's deemed appropriate to release.