Thank you for the information, I 100% agree with all that you said, I would add, that the citizens in 99% of the cases, are an additional set of eyes and ears for the law enforcement to assist them and provide information. Having gone to full time encryption has taken that resource away from both departments. Having been the system administrator for two large VA localities' radio systems, encryption was available as it was for the JCPD and WCSO, but mostly all transmissions were in the clear and we relied on the citizens monitoring our system to provide that extra piece of information..
My guess is that if you get a response from anyone, they will point to "some threat" for the case of going encrypted. Again thank you and I look forward to any information that you can provide.