Several years ago, I spoke with a person who was in upper management of the Cook County P25 encrypted 800 MHz trunked system. When he was approached by several police chief's, they were given the option of having comms "in the clear," or encrypted. At that time, prior to the transition to the P25 trunked system, there had been numerous complaints of clandestine radio transmissions, bogus calls from non-member entities, racial slurs, and childish actions taking place on their radio networks. When asked if going encrypted would solve these issues, they were informed that "it might help," but still couldn't stop game-playing on the radio network if a lost or stolen radio got in the wrong hands. The administrators said that there would be a better chance of keeping things calmer, and less horse-play being encrypted, so they chose that option. A radio that got in the wrong hands could be "stunned and killed," making that radio useless until it could be re-programmed by a duly authorized radio technician. This is also called "bricking a radio," making it about as useful as a brick. I don't know how many times this has occurred since, but the technology is out there.
