Democrat-Gazette reporter seeing local scanner enthusiasts for story

[DMcFadinADG]

Hello, my name is Daniel McFadin. I'm a reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. I'm currently doing research for a story about police scanner enthusiasts in the Little Rock/central Arkansas area. Basically the story is about how local scanner monitors have adapted their hobby given the road blocks put in place by the authorities back in 2014 and 2015.

This is inspired by the establishment of the "Pulaski, Saline, Lonoke & Faulkner Co 911 Report" Facebook group earlier this year.

If you or someone you know would be open to being interviewed about this, please let me know via my email: dmcfadin@adgnewsroom.com.

(if this goes against the warning at the top of the forum about encryption, my apologies)

 

[03msc]

I'm not in central AR but I want to say I appreciate you doing this story. It is my hope that a new mayor for LR (assuming one is elected other than the incumbent) will reverse the E decision. But I won't go into it more than that. Mostly just wanted to say thanks for working on the piece.

 

[ctiller]

I don't live in AR either, but I think you should ask lawmakers what they think about it. There should be limits to encryption. Community Oriented Policing is supposedly based on transparency and this is the exact opposite of that.

 

[wbswetnam]

I'm not in central AR but I want to say I appreciate you doing this story. It is my hope that a new mayor for LR (assuming one is elected other than the incumbent) will reverse the E decision. But I won't go into it more than that. Mostly just wanted to say thanks for working on the piece.

Would the decision to go / remain 'E' be at the mayoral level or the Chief of Police? Since going E about 6 or 7 years ago, LRPD has gone through several Chiefs of Police but none of them have reversed 'E' for any LRPD talkgroups.

On a related side note, when I was in LR just last week, I noticed that North Little Rock PD has an unenc talkgroup called Police - Common (37704) which was NOT encrypted. I heard traffic on it.

 

[03msc]

I suspect the mayor could heavily influence. Especially if their platform is transparency.

 

[ctiller]

Hello, my name is Daniel McFadin. I'm a reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. I'm currently doing research for a story about police scanner enthusiasts in the Little Rock/central Arkansas area. Basically the story is about how local scanner monitors have adapted their hobby given the road blocks put in place by the authorities back in 2014 and 2015.

This is inspired by the establishment of the "Pulaski, Saline, Lonoke & Faulkner Co 911 Report" Facebook group earlier this year.

If you or someone you know would be open to being interviewed about this, please let me know via my email: dmcfadin@adgnewsroom.com.

(if this goes against the warning at the top of the forum about encryption, my apologies)

can you post when you publish the article? I'd like to read it

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

There should be limits to encryption. Community Oriented Policing is supposedly based on transparency and this is the exact opposite of that.

I've heard and entertained both sides of this argument. There are some staunch defenders here on the forums of the opinion that the public "has absolutely no right to be privy to the everyday ops of their LE officials" but I feel that in these very turbulent times with growing tensions between the public & law enforcement that we absolutely should have the right to know what goes on in our neighborhoods. Keep the routine "day to day" operations "in the clear" and have your separate encrypted tac channels you can switch to when the time comes. There shouldn't be a need for a total "veil of secrecy"

 

[ctiller]

I've heard and entertained both sides of this argument. There are some staunch defenders here on the forums of the opinion that the public "has absolutely no right to be privy to the everyday ops of their LE officials" but I feel that in these very turbulent times with growing tensions between the public & law enforcement that we absolutely should have the right to know what goes on in our neighborhoods. Keep the routine "day to day" operations "in the clear" and have your separate encrypted tac channels you can switch to when the time comes. There shouldn't be a need for a total "veil of secrecy"

I agree that's something I'd expect if I lived in North Korea or China

 

[wbswetnam]

I agree that's something I'd expect if I lived in North Korea or China

Keep in mind, however, that in almost every other developed country in the world, all public safety communications have gone to digitally encrypted forms. Nearly all of Europe uses encrypted TETRA, and nearly all public safety (not only police but also fire, EMS, civil defense, etc.) in Canada is digitally encrypted. The USA is actually the outlier when it comes to public access to monitoring public safety communications.

 

[ctiller]

Keep in mind, however, that in almost every other developed country in the world, all public safety communications have gone to digitally encrypted forms. Nearly all of Europe uses encrypted TETRA, and nearly all public safety (not only police but also fire, EMS, civil defense, etc.) in Canada is digitally encrypted. The USA is actually the outlier when it comes to public access to monitoring public safety communications.

yes that's true, but we enjoy many freedoms in this country that other countries don't