Hot off the press!!!!! Findlay PD will be encrypted. Here is the article in the paper.
City police to silence radio traffic
By JORDAN CRAVENS and JOY BROWN
staff Writers
City police are planning on keeping their live radio communications a secret.
When Findlay joins the state's Multi-Agency Radio Communications System, likely within the next month, the police department plans to encrypt radio communications of "everyday operations" so they can't be understood on radio scanners.
It's an effort to improve officer safety and to prevent criminals from using scanners to avoid arrest, according to Sgt. Randy Digby of the Findlay Police Department.
"Everyone in 'scannerland' hears everything," said Findlay Safety Director Jim Barker. "A couple of investigations have been compromised because of people knowing what the police department is doing."
Digby said all general dispatch communications will be encoded. People with scanners will hear a squawking noise and will not be able to understand what is being said.
The planned encryption has Hancock County Sheriff Michael Heldman concerned, given that the state radio system was designed to allow multiple agencies to be able to communicate better.
"If they are encrypted, we won't be able to hear what they are doing," Heldman said.
Speaking hypothetically, he said a dangerous situation could arise if a deputy pulls over a person for speeding, not knowing that city police have identified the person as a suspect fleeing from an armed robbery.
The suspect could have a weapon and "it could impact an officer's life" if that is not known when the deputy makes the traffic stop, Heldman said.
When the city made plans to purchase the radio system, Barker said, having partial encryption capability was something the city wanted. But the police department indicated it wanted full encryption capability, he said.
"I guess it's going to be the chief's call" about going full encryption, Barker said. "That's a decision I would leave up to him (Acting Police Chief Greg Horne)."
Mayor Pete Sehnert, a former police officer, said he was not aware of the police department's decision to go to total encryption.
"There's always been scannerland out there, and people usually find a way to get the (closed) frequencies anyway," Sehnert said. "The only need for encryption would be for specific operations" such as those by the police department's vice-narcotics unit.
Findlay Fire Chief Tom Lonyo said his department will not encrypt its communications.
"From day to day, we operate without encryption, except on very rare occasions. The occasions where we'd want to use it would be very slim or minimal. And the cost was too substantial for us to really bother with," Lonyo said.
When asked about the additional cost of having the full encryption capability, Barker said, "I'd have to go way back through the radio stuff to see how much."
Hancock County is already up and running with the new state radio system, and Heldman said his department will only switch on the system's encryption capability for highly sensitive cases, like if a SWAT team is called to a scene or for drug investigations.
"But for everyday use, I don't see any reason for it to be encrypted," he said.
Both Digby and Heldman said citizens listening to the scanner have provided useful information to police about suspects.
But the bottom line, Digby said, is officer safety.
There have been several cases where the broadcast of police communications over scanners has put the welfare of officers in jeopardy, Digby said.
In 1999, an emotionally-upset man on the city's east side threatened to shoot himself and police. The police Emergency Response Team responded and surrounded his home. They later learned the man, who had a rifle, was monitoring a scanner and knew where officers were positioned on his property, Digby said.
Officers ended up shooting the man when he tried to flee, Digby said.
The new police radios will be set to encryption mode unless a situation arises where there is a need to communicate with multiple agencies, Digby said.
Such was the case with the 2007 flood.
"If something like that would come up, all an officer would have to do is turn the encryption off," he said. "It's a touch of a button."
A supervisor or dispatcher would advise when turning off the encryption should be done, he said.
Sheriff Heldman said if his office needed its communication to be encrypted, it would switch to a different frequency to do that.
Both Barker and Digby said the police encryption will not impact getting information to the public.
"It's not trying to hide things. When we do the encryption, if something happens that we need to notify the media and the public, somebody will have to tell a dispatcher or have someone get the word out," Barker said.
Police will provide information through press releases to the media.
All police radio communication, even if it is encrypted, is public record and can be obtained later through records requests, Digby said.
He said there are no laws that prohibit the use of encryption by public safety agencies, and said more agencies are beginning to encode some or all of their communication.
Editorial Page Editor Steve Dillon contributed to this story.
Cravens: 419-427-8422, Send an e-mail to Jordan Cravens
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