San Diego County encryption

[Anderegg]

Paul, Have you heard of any plans of SDPD going to full encryption so far? I know it's always a possibility but I had the feeling the mayor wasn't a fan of encryption based on a bill he authored in the state assembly years back to keep transparency at least with the media, if not the public.

Official plans, no. Internal desires and scuttlebutt, yes. Mayors change, and with them, policies.

Paul

 

[SDBud]

You can bet that these agencies are reveling in the discussions here on the forum about it. Maybe just constant media ridealongs going forward.

It's one big fraternity. They don't give a rats ass about the public.

Get used to it now, though. The next step for public safety radio is inevitably going to be a cellular-style situation, and encryption would be inherent in that anyway. We've already touched on that subject.

You can bet that the mutual aid trunked talkgroups for law enforcement will eventually go encrypted as well, once all of the concerned agencies have encryption-capable radios and have encrypted their stuff.

Encryption keys are specific to an Agency, and aren't shared (other than in specific cases like ASTREA/ABLE), and can NOT be used on mutual aid channels between Agencies.

 

[Anderegg]

Most of the brass at SDPD don't seem to be aware that their radios haventhe LEC SECURE zone, or would rather their units be able to switch to SDPD Patch within each divisional zone on their radios and not have their encrypted comms patched across a non encrypted mutual aid talkgroup, as happens now. It is discouraged to switch their radios off their divisional zone unless the world is ending.

Paul

 

[d119]

Encryption keys are specific to an Agency, and aren't shared (other than in specific cases like ASTREA/ABLE), and can NOT be used on mutual aid channels between Agencies.

That wasn't the case when I worked on ICI up in LA. There was a system-wide common key that every agency had in their keyloader. So no, they are not necessarily specific to an agency. Agencies could have their own encryption keys for their own stuff, but there were systemwide encrypted talkgroups between agencies on that "common key".

Additionally, encryption can certainly be used on mutual aid talkgroups between agencies. There is no restriction on that whatsoever. That's up to the radio system managers and the agencies.

Now CONVENTIONAL national interoperability channels, that's a different story.

I have encrypted talkgroups in my work radio for agencies that I don't work for. So clearly they are shared.

 

[Anderegg]

NCPD Dispatch 1 is now encrypted. Sounds like they are running a patch for unencrypted radios on Tac 3 for right now, but that transition should not be very lengthy as they do not have as many radios to reprogram as other larger agencies.

RIP NCPD.

Paul

 

[Anderegg]

NCPD has completed their encryption reprogramming, only took 24 hours, so they are now GONE.

It seems that we have now lost North Coast Sheriffs...the encrypted primary is still yapping, but NCO 20 Tac 2 is no longer patched. Am hearing NCO primary on POW 40 Tac 2 on the primary patch though.

Paul

 

[iowajm780]

Assignment editors do what are called "beat checks", which involve making phone calls to agencies to ask them if anything newsworthy is happening. This was one of the rare times that someone answered the phone. CVPD Watch Commanders typically will be seen out in the field in white unmarked SUVs, and away from the landlines we call for info. For the majority of agencies, the dispatchers who answer media calls at night are not permitted to answer media inquiries.

Paul

The good old days of calling the watch commander asking “anything exciting going on?”. The media folks that were respectful had a good working relationship with the cop shop. When I started out in the business was working the assignment desk listening to scanners for spot news and making beat checks with them. I was always nice to them and they did realize that I had a job to do. There were a couple of supervisors that would feed me a line of BS, but that is how they rolled. No law says they have to tell the media what is going on and they would wait until a press release was made. I refused to call a dispatch supervisor for beat checks, they were way too busy to respond to media calls. In most cases they were not even authorized to speak with members of the media. More than once I told the ND to go and pound sand when told to call dispatch supervisor on duty. A good assignment desk would be able to find out a spot news story if the police were not saying much on their dispatch channel. The firefighters and EMS personnel were always chatty on their channels. So now encryption makes it more difficult not impossible to find out a potential news story.

After seeing that Chicago PD would be offering a special feed available for when the new OMEC encrypted talkgroups are put online is a good example of a police organization that allows ordinary citizens be able to monitor their police officers. The setup keeps officer safety in mind. Kudos to Lindsey for working with the City of Chicago to make this happen. I wish more agencies would do this, but if they want to encrypt they will.

 

[inigo88]

Two new sheriff talkgroups have popped up in the process of reprogramming/encryption.

1941 appears to be patched to Detentions Transport (2188).
1973 appears to be patched to Inquiry (2140).

For DTN TRANS it looked like 2188 was encrypted while the new talkgroup 1941 was in the clear, similar to the Tac 2 patches. These may become new permanent versions of those talkgroups, or new talkgroups if there was a fleetmap reprogramming. Worth keeping an eye on although not sure it'll do much good once everything goes quiet.

 

[Anderegg]

Overnight, and now testing for the last hour, ALL Tac 1 talkgroups have only contained encrypted transmissions. I would assume this means most if not all radios have been reprogrammed, and Tac 2 unencrypted patches may go away very soon.

Paul

 

[d119]

Tac 2 unencrypted patches may go away very soon.

Paul

Should I have a medic on standby for you?

 

[Anderegg]

Update on Tac 2...when certain dispatchers patch, such as Vista and San Marcos overnight, you will not get patched audio on BOTH Tac 2's. Tonight, San Marcos Tac 2 is DEAD while the dispatches are patched, and you must listen to Vista Tac 2 to hear San Marcos comms. If you lock into a Tac 2 and hear nothing, scan around until you do hear something.

Paul

 

[nhse]

As of 9 pm, Vista (Fallbrook) and San Marcos are on their tac 2 channels, North Coastal is quiet on tac 2, cannot find any activity anywhere, Rural still active on Rural on the west zone as well as Poway. Santee Dispatch quiet on the south zone and have not checked any other dispatch groups on the south zone.
My observations so far is North Coastal and Santee dispatch are now off their tac 2 alternate channels. Bummer!

 

[Anderegg]

I believe we are only hearing Tac 2 traffic when an unencrypted radio is affiliated specifically on that talkgroup. The lack of affiliations tells me there are not that many unencrypted radios left floating around out there especially at night.

Paul

 

[tsalmrsystemtech]

Sounds like all of these San Diego county LE departments are finally going all secure now. Looks like the whole lower half of California is going to be fully locked down soon. I always thought San Diego City and County was a special part of California that was not a big fan of Big E but it looks like that is not the case now. Bummer. I guess Oceanside is the only one basically open and they will probably follow suit soon.

 

[Anderegg]

This is all due to the PII mandate handed down by the state DOJ. While not an "encrypt everything" directive, the departments are taking the opportunity to use it as an excuse to do so ad to get it funded based on it being "the law" now.

Paul

 

[nhse]

Funny…6 in the morning and Santee is alive! Kinda make sense that it is only active on a as needed basis.now wait and see if North Coastal comes alive.

 

[nhse]

There maybe hope!

 

[d119]

There maybe hope!

Good luck with that. You know better than most how things work.

 

[Anderegg]

Being that the criminals who do the identity theft are part of the public, that bill is a non starter.

They should have a reverse LA Sheriffs Dept thing, where you can hear the units but not the dispatcher. How often does an officer in the field on a handheld actually transmit out CLETS data from a terminal...if he is reading CLETS off a terminal then he doesn't need to receive it OTA now does he (she/they etc).

Paul

 

[nhse]

They do address how the CHP is dealing with the requirement, in general it’s just an excuse to get funding for more new, cool radios.