I fail to comprehend your participation in this particular forum if you feel government transparency is so "dangerous and irresponsible". Given that the Hennepin County feed has been offlined since shortly after this post, we might as well just give up our "hobby" and our right to know what our public servants are doing altogether!
Agencies have more than enough encrypted channels to make use of and I venture to guess the critical comms are not out in the open. FFS the Hennepin Co Sheriff, in totalitarian fashion, has already moved all of their comms to encrypted, the National Guard operates all encrypted along with any federal agencies involved as well.
And that is precisely what I do not want to see more of in this area. When officers, under assault of projectiles from an angry mob, key up and state on a channel of which Broadcastify's terms of use specifically forbid streaming, that the aforementioned angry mob has individuals monitoring their radio traffic, the countdown to full encryption plummets. Nearly every single media statement following the introduction of full encryption in an area addresses this concept. St. Louis, MO, is a cautionary tale to scanner hobbyists everywhere. Naturally, the issue of encryption is much more complicated than one post can fully address, and I would posit that many who read this understand that. However, no one could argue that the taunting of smartphone scanning of tactical (albeit unencrypted) talkgroups by an unpredictable and massive crowd doesn't put E's in the eyes of those in power.
That having been said, I can't argue enough for government transparency, and our hobby plays an incredibly important role in that. The truth is important, and having spent the past week monitoring Twin Cities area radio traffic (on the devices I paid good money for, and spent time learning to program and configure well) I've heard much more truth than is present in most media coverage and Facebook posting. Without getting into politics, I believe government transparency and accountability are essential to our American way of life. I doubt many of us would disagree with that. In a perfect world, every public safety channel could be monitored from your scanner and streamed around the world, and no problems would ever arise from that. (Could you imagine how cool that would be?!) Unfortunately, the Broadcastify terms of service have to exist for a reason, and the streamer who I addressed in this thread violated them.
However, as the country moves forward and, in some cases, looks deeper into its relationship with the men and women sworn to protect it, I wonder (and hope) if the issue of encryption will be reexamined. Many of those who post in these forums from encrypted areas have expressed frustration at the lack of transparency in their area, and the unfortunate commitment of their tax dollars to this cause. Perhaps now, more than ever, those with the power over those who have signed off on clicking that dreaded box in CPS will listen. Perhaps correspondence with one's elected officials supporting unencrypted communication won't be as dismissed as they may have been in the past. Who knows?
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