Encryption is not being "encouraged" by the state, but it is available and easier to manage on fully digital systems like FIRST. It is however being "encouraged" by Motorola, since the make money on encryption licenses for each subscriber. DHS is "encouraging" encryption as a policy, but then again they don't answer directly to constituents as local officials do. I doubt MSP will encrypt routine operations since they have MDTs, plus they have a consent decree wrt profiling a few years back. Same with Montgomery County. The smaller, more rural jurisdictions are generally more conservative, and give sheriff's departments and smaller forces wider latitude to conduct operations in secrecy (it seems.) And bottom line, it is relatively inexpensive to install and maintain encryption on a few radios rather than thousands - and we haven't started to talk about interoperability and the key management headaches that entails.