APORATH
Member
Many cities/counties/states/entities that have trunked radio systems will sell radios on that system, with transmit features disabled and a limited channel/talkgroup list, to media agencies. That's how it's done here - the local media has portables that have no transmit capability, and only the main fire/police/EMS dispatch talkgroups, and no tac channels, special operations channels (i.e. tac team/SWAT/drug unit/EMS hospital patches/etc), and so on. This also allows the radio system operator to deal with an agency that misuses the "power" of having a radio... a quick command on the controller will turn that radio into a paperweight awfully fast...
Does your area use 100% encryption? just curious. My area is upgrading to a P25 system, and I don't know if the PD is going to use encryption or not.