Austin Police - Encryption

[rattlerbb01]

Austin PD has begun rolling out fully encrypted dispatch talkgroups running patched to the legacy groups currently. Units are reported to be in the process of switching over to the new talkgroups with a goal of full cutover by the end of the summer. Another big blow for government transparency to its taxpayers.....

You'll see the new groups in the database posted side by side with the legacy groups, but again, they are currently fully encrypted.

 

[tunnelmot]

...and the encryption tide rolls across Texas. I'm in Montgomery County, which has led the way to locking things down on 1a7. I still enjoy monitoring fire and "other" stuff. Almost NO law in the open here.
There's more I could say...but you know...

 

[rattlerbb01]

A reminder: we elect the sheriffs, commissioners, city council members, and state reps/senators/executives. I’ll leave it at that. I hope they realize the significance of going dark to the public.

 

[Ensnared]

GDSOBMF. "E" is like an untreated STD. It keeps resurfacing and tends to get worse with time.

I am rather dense at times. Does this mean there will be "E" for all APD talk groups when the cutover is finished?

At present, there is only one thing that interests me in Austin, Precision Camera. I used to love going to concerts there; however, Austin is a clip joint (no pun intended) when it comes to milking people for money.

Like Ft. Worth, I will be adding Austin to my list of cities I will avoid in the future.

I am going to grieve my loss, sorry Bastards in Austin.

 

[garys]

IMO, it's a political decision, not a public safety one.

 

[rattlerbb01]

IMO, it's a political decision, not a public safety one.

I was thinking to myself the same thing, with all the pressure Abbott has been putting on the city for their efforts to defund the PD, as well as having a larger trooper presence to enforce laws that the city wants to ignore. Probably is political and may be a spark we need to get the discussion going here.

 

[ChrisABQ]

Most of these cities that are colored 'blue" tend to be the cities going full E. The people that live and vote there don't know any better, so a hiding they will be.

 

[ILjim]

I feel sorry for you guys in Austin. Here in my area, almost all local police (including my local PD) are ENC along with the Cook County Sheriff's and more notably, the Chicago Police. The Chicago PD rollout was particularly painful for us since it was slow, one Dispatch Zone at a time, in a span of almost a year. While we can still listen to CPD via Broadcastify, I don't know if Austin will do the same (I have my doubts though).

 

[KevinC]

Sort of on topic…

During the “civil unrests” in 2020 the local PD worked the protests on the Tac TG’s, which are encrypted. The trouble makers quickly figured out all they had to do was shadow an officer and listen to his radio. Multiple times officers were reminded to use their earpiece….which sounds like a fix except not all officers on the street had one.

So encryption doesn’t always solve the problems. Bad guys will find a a way.

 

[W5ATX]

Annnnd the cat is out of the bag.

 

[Echo4Thirty]

A reminder: we elect the sheriffs, commissioners, city council members, and state reps/senators/executives. I’ll leave it at that. I hope they realize the significance of going dark to the public.

I understand what you are trying to say, but lets not kid ourselves. There is miniscule significance for them going encrypted to the huge majority of the public. I would imagine a large swath of folks when asked would probably not really even care. Very few are we who listen, and even fewer not using cellphone streams but our own devices.

The amount of people that have approached us about being able to listen to Montgomery county is very low, take away the tow guys and it is literally single digits. The rest just have accepted that its the new normal and shrugged and moved on to listening to other things.

 

[W5ATX]

Reprogramming of the radios is in progress. It will take a few months to get all handi-talkies, fleets, base radios, etc to receive the encryption key. Main dispatch channels are still in the clear (for now). Specialized unit channels such as SWAT, CRIT1, CIB, OCD, MET, TAC, etc were all told to use encryption. Most of these radios already had the key programmed, usually ad hoc when someone promotes or transfers to a detail where encryption was already used in the past. If you hear something in the clear on the specialized talkgroups, more than likely it's a patrol officer switching over to that channel, and either his handheld or the unit radio hasn't been flashed yet.

 

[Ensnared]

Sort of on topic…

During the “civil unrests” in 2020 the local PD worked the protests on the Tac TG’s, which are encrypted. The trouble makers quickly figured out all they had to do was shadow an officer and listen to his radio. Multiple times officers were reminded to use their earpiece….which sounds like a fix except not all officers on the street had one.

So encryption doesn’t always solve the problems. Bad guys will find a a way.

Exactly. Offenders in TDCJ use lemon juice for invisible ink (old method). They had made zip guns out of tightly rolled newspaper/magazines. They have put gasoline in bulbs (long time ago). When white tip matches were around, they would collect the phosphorous on top, pack it into toothpaste tubes and blow things up.

The escapees from the Connally Unit used business band radios from RS to communicate when they were on the run.

My friend, who used to be with Austin PD stated that the 6th Street graft was pronounced.

I seriously doubt this will have any compelling effect on crime reduction. Most of those in TDCJ did not think they would get caught, LOL.

I have seen where some sheriff's departments that did not follow the "E" path such as Tarrant County. I wonder if Travis County will follow suit.

I am also wonder if any law enforcement agencies used Federal Infrastructure monies to do this.

 

[jmayson]

Strangely I've been hearing Round Rock PD all day in the clear. They had been encrypted for years.

 

[rattlerbb01]

Strangely I've been hearing Round Rock PD all day in the clear. They had been encrypted for years.

See this is the thing that is so crazy about it all, some agencies that have been dark since before it was “cool” are all of a sudden opening up. If Round Rock actually goes clear, that will be a big one, but Kerrville clearing dispatch has been welcome. New Braunfels sometimes forgets, etc. If the powers that be would realize that all any citizen, whether journalist, scanner head, ham or hobbyist, is to just hear the calls going on around them, they could happily encrypt their chit chat and surveillance groups and not much fuss would be had. If anything needs to come to light, most of those through the P25 systems are recorded and can be had through FOIA anyhow.

 

[KTR722]

One of the ironies of going encrypted vs. in the clear is that when you know you are in the clear, you are more careful/guarded in your conversations as a general habit/rule. When you go encrypted and someone screws up, and you are used to talking "securely", the mistakes from accidentally broadcasting "in the clear" can become much more costly.

 

[KTR722]

Strangely I've been hearing Round Rock PD all day in the clear. They had been encrypted for years.

Can I ask on which talk groups you are hearing RRPD? My gut says you are hearing them patched into a Regional Law. There is probably one other possibility on what you are hearing.

EDIT: I just looked and I think you were hearing them on RR PD EVENT 1. All the event channels are in the clear. Lots of traffic on EVT 1 yesterday. Can you confirm?

 

[jmayson]

Can I ask on which talk groups you are hearing RRPD? My gut says you are hearing them patched into a Regional Law. There is probably one other possibility on what you are hearing.

EDIT: I just looked and I think you were hearing them on RR PD EVENT 1. All the event channels are in the clear. Lots of traffic on EVT 1 yesterday. Can you confirm?

It was only that one day. I was hearing their main channels. I haven't heard them since.

 

[KE5PL]

Austin PD has begun rolling out fully encrypted dispatch talkgroups running patched to the legacy groups currently. Units are reported to be in the process of switching over to the new talkgroups with a goal of full cutover by the end of the summer. Another big blow for government transparency to its taxpayers.....

You'll see the new groups in the database posted side by side with the legacy groups, but again, they are currently fully encrypted.

Austin PD has begun rolling out fully encrypted dispatch talkgroups running patched to the legacy groups currently. Units are reported to be in the process of switching over to the new talkgroups with a goal of full cutover by the end of the summer. Another big blow for government transparency to its taxpayers.....

You'll see the new groups in the database posted side by side with the legacy groups, but again, they are currently fully encrypted.

Radio Authentication as well. Travis County soon to follow.

 

[Echo4Thirty]

Radio Authentication as well. Travis County soon to follow.

This is going to be incredibly hard to maintain on a system this large with the multitude of agencies. TxWarn has been trying to implement it forever. Just too many radios that either do not have the option flashed into them or do not support it at all. On a system that is being installed from the ground up, sure. But trying to put the horse back in the barn is a major undertaking.