Johnson county set on encryption following Linn county

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newsphotog

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We just can't talk about how RadioReference/Broadcastify is part of the problem instead of part of the solution.
 

RHans47

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So in everyone's opinion, what are the likely chances of getting this overturned?

I waited a while and finally bought a P25 scanner this January but then was disappointed to find Benton Co Sheriff (we are building a home there) is encrypted and now Linn is headed that direction. I can get Benton Co Fire and a few other non-digital channels on my old scanners so I am strongly considering selling my new scanner. I've wanted it for quite awhile but my main reasons for buying it are now/will be encrypted.
 

N0UUS

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Petition

Is there any organized petition to address this topic any further ?
 

K0JWW

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Reference Petition

N0UUS, I would be willing to be part of an effort to petition Linn and Johnson County authorities against it. I got about 32,000 views on the Linn and Johnson County P25 Scanner Feed page where it had e-mail addresses to public officials. From what I understand, some of the people who are regulars on my Broadcastify Feed's Facebook page sent e-mails and largely got canned responses. It would tend to indicate they were inundated.

Message me, e-mail me or go to the Linn and Johnson County P25 Scanner Site. I had done interviews for KCRG and the Iowa City Press Citizen (though KCRG made me look like I was some guy who showed up on police calls. Nothing could be further from the truth. What I meant by "the good people" were those who call 911 with useful information about what they see going on in the area of a major crime. So long as they don't go towards danger and happen to be there, that's what I mean. )
 

K0JWW

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So in everyone's opinion, what are the likely chances of getting this overturned?

I waited a while and finally bought a P25 scanner this January but then was disappointed to find Benton Co Sheriff (we are building a home there) is encrypted and now Linn is headed that direction. I can get Benton Co Fire and a few other non-digital channels on my old scanners so I am strongly considering selling my new scanner. I've wanted it for quite awhile but my main reasons for buying it are now/will be encrypted.

Apparently, they haven't implemented the change yet. And to my understanding, law channels are the only ones to be encrypted according to the CRPD Facebook Page. Fire and EMS will stay in the clear. I believe it is a mistake to encrypt all law channels. They have most of their radio traffic encrypted and have channels that they are able to utilize if they wish to go encrypted. What they need is a flexible policy that puts them on an encrypted channel if they should need it...but they use unencrypted channels for routine communications. One other option is to upgrade to Project 25 Phase II TDMA. Only the newer scanners can receive TDMA trunking
 

firemedic78

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False maybe in the future but state can only communicate via vlaw31 an point 2 point with our county unless patched from Lea to an event ch. On ISP base ch I have heard troopers asking their dispatch to confirm what they have heard via scanner. All troopers monitor local counties on scanners. In the future they may get radios but currently only a few have radios!

I guess I don't know what area in the state you are from, but I have several friends who are State Patrol Troopers both within our district and and other districts, and I ride with them quite a bit. To make a comment regarding this above, the state patrol radio shop in Des Moines does in fact program their local County frequencies into their dual band mobile radio in their vehicle. Yes they also program their Uniden scanners for them as well, with the county frequencies that are within their post or within their District that they Patrol, but, unless it's a agency that does not use conventional analog channels, p25 conventional Channels with the NAC number, or for the couple counties south of us that use DMR systems for their digital Communications, cannot be programmed into state patrol base radios within their car, but for the most part, all of the state patrol troopers radio that is in their vehicle have the County Law Office frequencies program into their mobile radios, and some even have other channels, like County Fire Channel and EMS channels that are within the same county that they patrol within their districts.., and of course if it's a repeater, they program both sides of the repeater into the mobile radios of the trooper vehicle radio, that way the Troopers can communicate directly with our County dispatch and other County dispatcher without going to V- Law(used to be called Mutual Aid), or whatever LEA Tower they are on.. At least in my neck of the woods, over here in Guthrie / Adair County in West Central Iowa, point-to-point is mainly used for dispatch to dispatch Communications. I rarely if at all here any law enforcement officer talking on point-to-point, it's usually one County dispatcher talking to a bordering County dispatcher, perfect example is the town I live in and I'm a member of the fire and rescue Department, we are a department that has jurisdiction in multiple bordering Counties, and a lot of are 911 calls, especially cell phone 911 calls, will ring into the county to the south of us, but in reality it's a law enforcement or a fire or rescue call that should have came to our County's Dispatch Center, or PSAP(for those of you that do not know what that means, it's called a public safety answering point) but the County south of us will either transfer the phone call or just simply take the information down and then get on point-to-point and call our County and advise them to dispatch such and such fire department for either fire or ambulance to such and such address for whatever issue is happening. I don't think I have ever heard an actual law enforcement officer talking on point-to-point, they usually will use V-law, LEA, or as stated earlier, they'll just contact there base and have them relay information, if they don't have that counties frequency already programmed into their mobile radio inside the car, or if it's a system that the Mobile Radio will not work for, or if they are on their handheld radio.. Even with the counties that are conventional p25, since the vehicle mobile radios are dual band, they can program the frequency and the P-25 NAC number and make it capable to where the trooper can switch over to that County law ops channel and talk to them directly, instead of either trying them on V-Law, LEA, or simply calling Atlantic, Springbrook, Glenwood, Underwood, or Denison Tower base to relay radio information. In fact, just as I was typing this post, Adair County contacted one of the ISP officers on the interstate to see if he could check on a 1046(disabled vehicle) and that broadcast went out over Adair County Sheriff repeater ops Channel, and the trooper was able to communicate back on the same channel. As far as the scanners, the state is upgrading everybody's vehicle scanner to the latest Uniden model, the BCD996P2, which happens to be the scanner I have, and I actually helped one of my friends program the correct system for a county within his district in our area that the radio shop had wrong. But I guess to get to the point of this post, unless it's an 700/800 megahertz digital or analog trunking system, or a DMR digital system, troopers can talk to County dispatchers directly from their mobile units as long as the radio shop programmers have the correct information, which nine times out of 10 they do, so again I don't know about your area, but over in my area, our troopers can talk to our County dispatchers directly through their mobile radios in their vehicles, again, as long as the radio shop programmed them in there. Handheld radios are a little different, with the lack of funding to buy dual band handheld radios, right now most of the handheld radios are just VHF radios, so if you're on a hand-held then yes, you'll have to go to LEA or V-Law to contact the County, or you'll have to contact whatever base yhey are on and have the state dispatcher relay the information. But for the most part, all of our Troopers in our area in post 2 can communicate with every single county within their area or District they cover simply on their mobile radios inside their vehicles.
 

mws72

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Just pointing out, could you after 6 to 10 lines insert a blank line. I like reading what you have it's just hard to read a block of text as above. :)
 

burner50

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Holy great wall of text batman...

Try grouping your thoughts into smaller phrases, and separating them.

Because not many people are going to read that... This is how I see it:




At least in my neck of the woods, over here in Guthrie / Adair County in West Central Iowa, point-to-point is mainly used for dispatch to dispatch Communications. I rarely if at all here any law enforcement officer talking on point-to-point, it's usually one County dispatcher talking to a bordering County dispatcher

I don't think I have ever heard an actual law enforcement officer talking on point-to-point, they usually will use V-law, LEA, or as stated earlier, they'll just contact there base and have them relay information, if they don't have that counties frequency already programmed into their mobile radio inside the car, or if it's a system that the Mobile Radio will not work for, or if they are on their handheld radio.

That's because 155.3700 is intended for, and only to be used for interagency communication from base station to base station. I don't recall if it is in the NIFOG, but it's not meant for individual units to use.
 
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mws72

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Not sure about Missouri, Nebraska & South Dakota. Illinois does not have mobile use of 155.370 while Minnesota and Wisconsin does have law enforcement mobiles on 155.370.
 

mws72

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Looks Like I might be going to Iowa City area next week. Will report what I hear unless someone beats me to it.

last week I ran Pro96com and for almost two hours while visiting at the VA. Afterwards I noticed two unid tgs that are not on RR db. 52124 & 52544. They were no encryption noticed but also no hits so they might of been part of a radio power up.
 
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ISW376

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Just to clarify point 2 point. What i was trying to say is cedar rapids state base and JCOM relay information then it is passed down to the troopers on there base channel. Troopers are not directly speaking via point 2 point.

I have noticed since Linn county has gone encrypted state troopers are requesting more on V Law 31 for more info and or patching. Along with point 2 point.

Iowa State patrol has no intention of encrypting once on ISICS according to the JECC.

The next meeting planned regarding Johnson county encryption which i will be attending again will be septemer 23rd 7:30am at the JECC. It is open to public discussion I've been in contact with the chiefs and have done research and will be talking about other county practices in Iowa, counties who were open then encrypted and are now open again and why they changed back to open channels, and working out pros and cons of encryption.

When i went to the meeting last time it was just me and the chiefs were very persuasive and because of this the JECC policy board is mostly in favor however they want the chiefs to have a list of pros and cons on the 23rd and from there a decision will be made. If it is decided to encrypt then in October of 2017 law 1 and 3 and possibly more will be encrypted.

I believe at this time Event channels are off the topic however at the last meeting they are not liking that event channels are on live feeds as door codes are sometimes put out along with HIPPA concerns.

I encourage people to attend to show that this is a bad move and that this is a big blow to transparency along with interopibility issues.
 

ISW376

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I actually plan on daily requesting audio for law 1 and 3 for the whole 24/7 period should they encrypt. I also will call dispatch Everytime i hear alot of sirens just to prove encryption won't stop the issues their claiming if anything it's going to make their job harder because of transparency issues.
 

mws72

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I actually plan on daily requesting audio for law 1 and 3 for the whole 24/7 period should they encrypt. I also will call dispatch Everytime i hear alot of sirens just to prove encryption won't stop the issues their claiming if anything it's going to make their job harder because of transparency issues.

You'll make the nut roll with plan, or at least get a rep. Possibility of a visit from an officer about harassing 911 operator. Please don't mad just pointing up possibilities.
 

ISW376

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You make a good point i definitely will be filling out FOIA Request constantly however.

This encryption thing is a 50/50 on passing.
 
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