I think monitoring radio traffic can be illegal too if it's being used in the commission of a crime (depending on state law), but that wasn't my point. What I was saying is I don't know of any "right" to monitor the airwaves as some are suggesting. It would be interesting to see if some private organization or media group takes the matter to court.
Let me take this a little off topic for the sake of debate:
One could argue the airwaves are supposed to be free (but regulated by the FCC) in this country, unlike places like England where you have (or had) to buy a license to be able to receive a television transmission.
I remember old commercials from the cable companies trying to "strongly suggest" it was illegal to decode their signals with equipment that wasn't being rented from them. If someone tapped in at the telephone pole, sure that was illegal, but if someone paid for basic cable into their home and the cable company also piped in premium channels along with their basic channels, would it be illegal to decode them? I've never seen a law that says you couldn't. True these aren't "over the air" signals unless you look at modern satellite providers too.
On a similar topic are WiFi signals. Some will say it's illegal to tap into someone else's open WiFi while others say if it's open there is no crime. One of the differences here is WiFi isn't just passive, it's active (both transmit and receive).
Then there are utility company smart meters which transmit RF to the dislike of many. Some claim they have a right not to have these transmitters on their property.
A topic for the future might be a taxation on using solar panels as mentioned by a humanities professor I had 30 years ago. Paying for sunlight sounds as ridiculous now as it did then, but who knows what will happen in another 30 years from now as solar continues to become a common source of power.
The arguments of who has a right to what and what is or isn't illegal seems to vary a lot with perception.
Most states already have statues that cover this. In Georgia it's known as possession of tools to facilitate a crime. We also have another charge which is criminal use of telecommunication devices. So use a phone, radio, scanner, pager- anything- and commit or attempt a crime, and you've got another felony to add to your stack o' charges.
WiFi, OTOH, is by nature an open access mutual connection. by it's design, WiFi devices seek out and connect to other devices, without user intervention. So by the same argument, I could say your WiFi access point connected to my laptop without my consent. It works both ways. At the end of the day, the FCC considers 802.11x devices to operate under part 15, which means they have no protection when it comes to getting interference or interception, it is up to the user to limit the range or use encryption to prevent unwanted connections.
Back to the encryption of public safety, we have no right to demand total access to radio traffic. It's just been the nature of the beast that in the past, communications were easy to intercept. Now with digital modulation and cheap software encryption, this isn't the case.
What does trouble me is the attitude some in law enforcement have. Recent legislation (the unPatriot Act) gives the government the ability to snoop, in realtime, on our electronic communications without warrants. Public photography is now unlawful in some places. Yet the government doesn't want it's citizens to be able to have the same freedoms to observe it's activities, all under the guise of "preventing terrorism"...am I the only one who has a problem with the government being able to do things to it's citizenry but yet the government is exempt from the same?
Most police departments uses audio and video recording in their cars on traffic stops, yet countless officers claim it's wiretapping and have even CHARGED people for using recording devices, in public- on the citizens. This is total guano. You're in public, on the public dime, doing the public's work. What do you have to hide? You are recording me...why do I not have the same liberty to make my own recording (after all, it's not like police tapes haven't turned up missing or edited after something happens.)?
Is this the society we want for our grandchildren? Is this what our forefathers intended?