800mhz
Member
Any conformation on Baltimore City Police encrypting their talkgroups?
Baltimore City Police Encrypted soon
- Thread starter 800mhz
- Start date
No.
A letter was sent out by BPD's tech support services to neighboring and partnering agencies inquiring about their capabilities to support encryption. And BPD's transition to the APX platform for all portable radios is in the near future. Beyond that, only speculation.
If departments insist on full encryption (based on unsubstantiated justifications,) they should be also fund data retention personnel to manage the data and process FOIA requests, or better yet, a new accountability agency should be created to remove the appearance of impropriety. This is one of the hidden costs of encryption.
hillbillytrav
Newbie
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2010
- Messages
- 1
It just hit the Baltimore Sun.
Baltimore Police moving to encrypt scanner transmissions, keeping public from hearing calls
Baltimore Police moving to encrypt scanner transmissions, keeping public from hearing calls
This is an effort by the police department to control the message - nothing more. I am not a city resident, but if I were, I would be letting my elected officials know what a bad idea this is. Police departments have a poor record of transparency, and this will further erode that record - and public trust.
Baltimore police plans to encrypt its scanners
BALTIMORE (WBFF) - Baltimore Police Department confirmed today it plans to encrypt its police scanners. The story was first reported by The Sun. The police department said in a statement: "In following national best practices, the Baltimore Police Department is working to encrypt it’s emergency...
foxbaltimore.com
Its simple local Govt.. If you can't stop the bad news just pretend it doesn't exist.Baltimore police plans to encrypt its scanners
BALTIMORE (WBFF) - Baltimore Police Department confirmed today it plans to encrypt its police scanners. The story was first reported by The Sun. The police department said in a statement: "In following national best practices, the Baltimore Police Department is working to encrypt it’s emergency...
boatbod
Member
The biggest barrier to full encryption is going to be the cost of licenses for every radio and those of surrounding mutual aid jurisdictions. Seems rather at odds with recent "defund" leanings.
Or just hide the facts.
sfb88
Member
So I listen mainly to Baltimore City Police and Fire and recently bought an SDS 200 and a Unication G4. Ain't life grand. 
This will end badly for the Baltimore City Police. Right now, they're still trying to rebuild trust with the community. Meanwhile, they're going to encrypt all radio traffic. Even if everything is above board, the political optics are terrible.
Mark my words, there are activists and enthusiasts who will take this on as a challenge. I don't see how the encryption effort will end well for the beleaguered city police.
Mark my words, there are activists and enthusiasts who will take this on as a challenge. I don't see how the encryption effort will end well for the beleaguered city police.
With cell phones and the already encrypted talk channels available, there is no need for 100% encryption. By the way, I'm retired from BCPD. Due to my prior position, I had the luxury of having the dispatcher shut off the repeater when I had certain info I didn't want other police or media to hear. We were on the 450 band at that time. Can they do that now with a trunked system?
No. Shutting down a repeater would affect system capacity and other potentially other users like the FD. But they have mobile phones and handheld alphanumeric devices if they want to use them. This is not really about infosec. This is about appeasing the police union and control of the message / avoiding embarrassment by department leadership.
Our local police used to do that as well. All it accomplished was to keep other offers from listening. The rest of us just tuned to the input of the repeater and listened in.
This probably has nothing to do with it..
forums.radioreference.com
Scan the Police - Baltimore City - Live tweeting the Baltimore City Police Department
Great new twitter feed to monitor, when listening to the Baltimore Police. Scan the Police / Baltimore City Live-tweeting the Baltimore City Police Department's scanner. https://twitter.com/scanthepolice
Probably not since this has been in the works for quite a while as part of their system refresh (replacing subscribers, etc.)This probably has nothing to do with it..
Scan the Police - Baltimore City - Live tweeting the Baltimore City Police Department
Great new twitter feed to monitor, when listening to the Baltimore Police. Scan the Police / Baltimore City Live-tweeting the Baltimore City Police Department's scanner. https://twitter.com/scanthepolice
Interesting, I don't see criminals running around with SDS-100s, I wonder what they are worried about.
Phones and the apps are a little more prolific, don't need an actual scanner nor the understanding to operate it..
Tweet..
Tweet..
