Indiana's 25-foot buffer zone law challenged in court

[scannerboy02]

When two egos like this collide, the "LEO ego" is likely to win.

I guess that depends on your definition of "win". While the officer may "win" the day if the officers ego caused them to violate the law that ego is likely not going to "win" in the end.

 

[scannerboy02]

scanner traffic has been used to target them with bullets over the years

Can you (or anyone else) point me to documentation of this kind of incident.

While I have heard of this possibly occuring I have not yet been able to locate any true documentation of its occurrence. As part of a project I am working on (that I will publish when completed) I am in the process of gathering documentation of incidents that would show the positive and negative sides of public access to public safety radio communications.

I have a fair amount of documentation currently but as of now most of the positive documentation is of actual incidents while the negative documentation seems to be from hypothetical or suspected incidents. I really need to get some documentation of actual negative incidents.

I do have documents that reference suspect(s) being arrested while monitoring radio communications but in those incidents the monitoring of radio communications didn't prevent the suspect(s) from being arrested so even those incidents wouldn't really be a negative or show some kind of actual need for encryption.

 

[ladn]

It has become a thing for people to monitor radio traffic and respond to the scene to record what's happening. This is one way that the public can become active in their government, the mainstream media has been doing this since the beginning. With advances in technology now just about anyone can commit acts of journalism which results in people being exposed to more information about what the police are doing and the police don't like that so they are taking steps to prevent it.

I had a very long career as a professional, credentialed, news photographer employed by traditional print media outlets. I've monitored uncountable hours of law enforcement/fire/emergency radio traffic. I take considerable issue with today's "citizen journalists" or "1st Amendment Montors".

There's nothing wrong with passive monitoring -- but acting on what you've monitored by placing oneself at the scene is entirely different. There's a certain degree of professionalism, based on training and experience, involved when you show up at an emergency situation. Many of the "citizen journalists" I encountered were clueless as to scene protocols or situational awareness. They got in the way of emergency workers and professional media folks, and put their own safety at risk.

Professional journalists are trained to be non-biased and fair in their coverage while many of the independent/citizen journalists aren't and are more interested in asserting their 1st Amendment rights with a heavy hand than gathering information, resulting in reduced access for everyone and reduced cooperation from emergency workers.

 

[scannerboy02]

I had a very long career as a professional, credentialed, news photographer employed by traditional print media outlets. I've monitored uncountable hours of law enforcement/fire/emergency radio traffic. I take considerable issue with today's "citizen journalists" or "1st Amendment Montors".

There's nothing wrong with passive monitoring -- but acting on what you've monitored by placing oneself at the scene is entirely different. There's a certain degree of professionalism, based on training and experience, involved when you show up at an emergency situation. Many of the "citizen journalists" I encountered were clueless as to scene protocols or situational awareness. They got in the way of emergency workers and professional media folks, and put their own safety at risk.

Professional journalists are trained to be non-biased and fair in their coverage while many of the independent/citizen journalists aren't and are more interested in asserting their 1st Amendment rights with a heavy hand than gathering information, resulting in reduced access for everyone and reduced cooperation from emergency workers.

April of last year was my 30th anniversary as a professional news photographer with 10 of those years being with "main stream" outlets.

I do agree with much of what you said but I also believe that more "eyes" are better. Yes, no one should be intentionally getting in the way and if they are they should be dealt with appropriately, but presence alone does not always equal interference.

 

[KC9NEG]

Professional journalists are trained to be non-biased and fair in their coverage...

It's a shame they all aren't.