Another Point for Open Sky
Hopefully this doesn't fuel the fire for encryption for the Washtenaw Co. area.
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Go ahead and flame me, (that seems to be the norm for dissenting beliefs in these forums) but don't be surprised if this exact thing happens.
I'm sorry, but we are living in an age when the criminals are using the same technology that law enforcement is using. Not long ago, a local police surveillance crew took down a group of B&E'ers (burglars). What did they have in their car? A Radio Shack scanner capable of conventional and P25 scanning. Great.
We are also living in the age of terrorism (unless you haven't been watching the news for the last 10 years). Open police and fire communications are an invitation to terrorists to exploit those systems. Forget the foreign terrorists, we now have to worry about these homegrown whack-jobs. Given the Hutaree's rather elaborate plan to kill so many law enforcement officers, it's impossible to conceive that they WOULDN'T be monitoring open police radio communications.
The fact that scanner enthusiasts have been able to monitor public safety radio communications since their inception is a fluke. The hobby was made possible because public safety used a rather low-tech approach to meet their communications requirements, and it has worked well for many years. However, technology has evolved. Technology now makes possible more efficient use of finite resources (such as the radio spectrum). Being able to scan public safety was never, and is not, any kind of 'right' anymore than there's a 'right' to monitor operations by the CIA, NSA, or our military satellites.
Yes, (thank The Lord), the police in this country ARE accountable to the people. That having been said, that doesn't mean law enforcement has to serve its officers up on a silver platter for the bad guys. Police departments using encrypted or non-scannable systems (Open Sky, for example), does not impinge on the rights or freedom of the public. It does not make the police any less accountable to the public. If anyone in the public wants to know what communications were associated with a given event, then, by all means, please file a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA). However, the rights under F.O.I.A. do not guarantee real-time delivery of the information.
No, there isn't a conspiracy keeping the public from hearing what the police are doing. We aren't secretly communicating New World Order plans to our operatives, nor are we coordinating the invasion of the UFO's. Let's leave that crap for the Loose Change and tin foil hat people, shall we? Several years ago, Oakland County accepted bids for a new county-wide radio system. Only M/A Com said they could deliver a 4-slot TDMA system. The only radical thing about this project was the end result: Everyone in the county can communicate with each other (and Warren, and MSP, and soon, Detroit and Macomb County). Wild, I know, but there you have it. Yes, it took several years, but they have delivered. Further, as M/A Com Harris went through the trouble of designing a new system, it belongs to them, thus making it a proprietary system. If they choose to not sell the technology to scanner manufacturers, so be it. Unfortunately, it seems to be the norm in our society that some people think they are entitled to the property (tangible and intangible) of others. This includes the algorithm for a proprietary radio system. Oh, well. Don't know what to tell you.
Gentlemen, life is about change. Society changes. Technology changes. The communications requirements of public safety changes. Yes, even hobbies must undergo change or extinction.
... Let the flaming begin. It still doesn't change any of the facts I have stated.