Lincoln Nebraska officials weigh encryption, public access to police radio dispatches

[mjm2001]

Federal Law

It used to be that repeating what was said on a police channel was against federal law. Perhaps if the news media was prosecuted under those federal laws they would stop doing it. Charge the criminals with the same crime and more time to their jail term.
It also used to be against a federal law to use a scanner in the commission of a crime.
It used to be I haven't looked at the federal laws concerning that in several years so it may have been changed along the way and no one told us about it.

 

[princessthelus]

It used to be that repeating what was said on a police channel was against federal law. Perhaps if the news media was prosecuted under those federal laws they would stop doing it.

To answer that question : Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. It's called the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution. If you are a cop you should know it because you threw it away when you swore an oath to provide the state arrest and ticket quotas.

It also used to be against a federal law to use a scanner in the commission of a crime.

Most state's criminal codes already have laws about using any technology in the commission of a crime. It would be tacked on with the original criminal complaint or used to charge stack to get a plea deal.

 

[James_Bond_007]

there is a solution to all of this that will appease everybody

the agencies themselves can stream their dispatch communication and insert say a 5 minute delay. this will help with officer safety while still allowing the public access.

 

[crazyboy]

the agencies themselves can stream their dispatch communication and insert say a 5 minute delay. this will help with officer safety while still allowing the public access.

Still, nothing would stop someone else streaming the PD channel without a delay.

 

[James_Bond_007]

Still, nothing would stop someone else streaming the PD channel without a delay.

yes it would. they would encrypt their RF channels and then stream them with a delay. this would still allow the public access while allowing for officer safety. the whole logic behind encrypting communications is to prevent criminals from using that info to allude or harm officers. a 5 minute delay would make that info useless to criminals while still allowing the public to monitor PD.

 

[crazyboy]

yes it would. they would encrypt their RF channels and then stream them with a delay. this would still allow the public access while allowing for officer safety. the whole logic behind encrypting communications is to prevent criminals from using that info to allude or harm officers. a 5 minute delay would make that info useless to criminals while still allowing the public to monitor PD.

Ahhhh ok, I got it now. I thought you meant leaving it in the clear and then the pd having an official feed with a delay instead of a random person hosting a feed.

 

[yardbird]

Like I said before.

Just another way to screw the honest man out of a hobby,

The only thing that should be encrypted are swat, drug channels and hospital patient reports.

Everything else needs to be open.

My thoughts

David

 

[c_snyder]

If I remember correctly there was a case I read about awhile back where some criminals were caught eluding police during either a robbery or some sort of criminal act and it was discovered that they were listening to the radio traffic. They were charged with using a scanner during the commission of a crime but it was ultimately dropped because of a technicality. The law stated in a subsection that a scanner was defined as a device used to receive police frequencies or something to that effect. They got off the hook with that charge because they were actually using a cell phone and a streaming app which in effect did not meet the definition of a "scanner". It received audio yes but over cellular frequencies and not the actual police frequency.

I can imagine this goes on all over the country and the law books just haven't gotten up to speed. In some states it is even illegal to have a scanner in a vehicle but again, the phones by law are legal everywhere. If you're going to provide a feed, a 10 minute delay would go a LONG way in making friends with law enforcement.

 

[bee]

What do you think is the percentage of people, that have a scanner they listen too?