The Official Thread: Live audio feeds, scanners, and... wait for it.. ENCRYPTION!

[jim202]

More police departments look to tune public out - Yahoo! News

Been trying to tell people on here that the free flow of radio frequency information will come to bite them. This plays even more important to the federal frequencies that some on here seem to thrive on in passing along every little bit of information they can.

There is a fine line between enjoying a hobby and ticking off the radio systems managers that pay close attention to what goes on here. All the live radio feeds that some seem to get a big high on in supplying have done the major damage. The snow ball is rolling down hill and picking up speed to cut off many of the radio systems that we have all enjoyed to listen to. The encryption of these systems is picking up speed. The more of the so called hidden frequency information that some like to post on the site here are just adding fuel to the encryption process.

It may be too late to even slow down the encryption process that is sweeping the country. About the only way I know of anything that may slow it down is taking away the advantage of the live broadcasts. Put in some serious delay of 30 to 60 minutes so any information that was being used by the bad guys is no longer to their advantage. The future of the entire site here is in the balance.

 

[Romak3]

windyXXXman 0 minutes ago <----(name changed...alittle)

"As a retired cop, I can tell you that a whole lot of Burglars carry Police scanners. They already know how Cops operate, and respond to calls, so if they can monitor there dispatched calls, they can get away with their criminal activity. So, a whole lot of Cops are having to use their cell phones to communicate the really sensitive info. That is a whole lot more distracting and difficult than using a radio. So, I don't buy into arguments that the public has a right to know. All radio transmissions are stored on a server, and frequently radio calls are used in court, etc. for documentation. Scanner land folks most often just need to get a life...."


Thank you for your service Mr. Richard Cranuim!

 

[sc800]

I hate to say it, but I think there is another element here that is getting overlooked and that is the fiscal crisis affecting many police departments.

I have been told by police officers that the town and village boards are hounding them for numbers, be it tickets, arrests, or calls responded to. Occasionally, these towns and villages have problems with the sheriff's office and state police jumping calls and taking the numbers away from them, which the politicians then use to justify layoffs.

I have heard officers in these departments make comments that they like their "private" channels so that the SP and SO can't hear what is going on, and comments that "it is all a numbers game". There was also one department around here, who when the mayor wanted to dissolve its dispatch, went to encryption so the county dispatch couldn't determine the nature and amount of radio traffic produced by this agency, and thus couldn't make an informed decision on whether they would be able to take on the workload. (Needless to say, the plan fell thorugh)

Do I believe that a department would go to full encryption just to prevent other LE agencies from hearing what they are doing. I wouldn't think so, but you have that case above, and you know what they say about desperate times and what they call for.

 

[Romak3]

^^^
Super Troopers anyone? sorry.......

 

[sc800]

It does seem like something out of Super Troopers, but it has actually happened. I've even heard members of "Agency 1" say over the air "I hate that f'in Agency 2, they are always jumping our calls."

Also, can anyone show me one shred of scientific evidence(ie. an article published in a peer-reviewed journal by people with university training in research methods and statistics) that scanner related crime has gone up with live feeds and apps.

Plus, I don't understand what this panic about apps is about, handheld scanners have existed for a long time. Why are agencies drawing an artificial distinction between a handheld scanner that costs a couple of hundred dollars, and a smartphone with plan that costs a couple of hundred dollars?

 

[OpenRoad]

I think the argument about encryption to fight criminals is nonsense. The percentage of people who are committing crimes that need fast response from police are more likely

1) Someone in a family argument, violence with spouse, etc. Not like they are gonna stop and listen to their scanners.

2) DUI driver. Not a likely candidate for a scanner, IMHO.

3) Any kind of non residential violence or fight - again, 'heat of the moment', how many would have a scanner?

4) Armed robbery. Totally unlikely they are gonna worry about scanning cops when holding up a liquor store or bank.

The only few I can see using a scanner would be someone breaking into a house, but then, those that would actually have a scanner would be a VERY LOW percentage. Show me statistics anywhere that his is a major problem. I think it is more about cops protecting themselves from public scrutiny, like video cameras are doing these days.

Another one - A few years ago I was personally driving home from shopping and heard a call come over the scanner from local Sheriff. There was a burglary in progress, and the homeowner came home and found the people stealing stuff. He blocked their exit from their car by blocking the driveway with his car. He was on the phone with dispatch, gave out a license plate number. They ran it and it showed up as "not on file" (this was in California, Santa Cruz County). The guy was then threatened, still on the phone with dispatch. Dispatcher said let them go, to avoid him getting hurt. I had the license number and car description written down.

Sheriff and CHP were all coming in code 3, but were some distance away. I knew from the call that I was very close to where this car would be headed, and sure enough, I spot the bad-guy car sitting at a red light. I phone 911, explain to the dispatcher I was listening to their radio traffic, and gave them the location of the car (and the fact it was a FLORIDA license plate, not a CAL plate - which made life easier for them). Bad guys got pulled over and arrested 2 blocks away. Chock up one for public access to police radio frequencies.

 

[JoeyC]

Also, can anyone show me one shred of scientific evidence(ie. an article published in a peer-reviewed journal by people with university training in research methods and statistics) that scanner related crime has gone up with live feeds and apps.

The argument that there is no scientific evidence that crime has increased because of scanner apps is irrelevant to the problem. The potential is there, it has been identified as a potential problem by the department and whether or not anyone has been successful at avoiding capture is really not important. I don't understand why people don't get this.

 

[W4JLR]

Was this 2 post combined into one?

 

[W4JLR]

The argument that there is no scientific evidence that crime has increased because of scanner apps is irrelevant to the problem. The potential is there, it has been identified as a potential problem by the department and whether or not anyone has been successful at avoiding capture is really not important. I don't understand why people don't get this.

Sounds about like the Gun argument. Some things about guns are good the potential also is for something bad, Same with scanners some things are good about scanners the potential are for something bad to happen. Lets see what was that movie with tom Cruise Minority Report.

Hell for that matter I've never been drunk my whole life but lets close all liquor stores and take my truck cause I could get a wild hair and drive drunk one night.

 

[E-Man]

Police Departments Look To Tune Out Scanner Hobbyists | Fox News

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2011-11-20/police-encrypted-radios/51319598/1

 

[sc800]

I don't understand what the point of posting the same articles over and over again is?

 

[MtnBiker2005]

Posting the same articles URL's is handy so we can read all those comments on those pages!

 

[JoeyC]

Hell for that matter I've never been drunk my whole life but lets close all liquor stores and take my truck cause I could get a wild hair and drive drunk one night.

The bell has rung.
Point is, the chiefs and those in authority have heard the ring.
You can't unring the bell.

 

[JoeyC]

I don't understand what the point of posting the same articles over and over again is?

Probably the mods moving them all in one place. I'm sure I saw at least 3 copies of this same articles in various forums on this site because everybody wants their own encryption thread.

 

[MtnBiker2005]

RR forum only had few posted already

General Scanner forum thread: - http://forums.radioreference.com/ge...-police-departments-look-tune-public-out.html
General Scanner forum thread: - http://forums.radioreference.com/ge...15-more-departments-look-tune-out-public.html
New Jersey thread: - http://forums.radioreference.com/ne...-police-departments-look-tune-public-out.html
New York Thread: - http://forums.radioreference.com/ne...-police-departments-look-tune-public-out.html
Nevada Thread: - http://forums.radioreference.com/ne...i-monitoring-article-lvrj.html?highlight=tune
Maryland Thread: - http://forums.radioreference.com/maryland-radio-discussion-forum/226224-encryption-news.html

 

[scannerfreak]

Probably the mods moving them all in one place. I'm sure I saw at least 3 copies of this same articles in various forums on this site because everybody wants their own encryption thread.

Correct. This story was posted about 10-15 times in various forums. Those that had replies were merged here.

 

[zzdiesel]

It sure went through the media like wildfire.

 

[martidav]

Police departments use encryption to tune public out

I find it empowering (for opponents of encryption) to see the main stream media pick up the issue.
I think the compromises are already in place:
In place in Seattle, at least. Police have designated Talk Groups for encrypted convos, they have Sprint/Nextel Push to Talk (PTT) phones and they can send ea other text messages to their car laptops (MDC's or T's whatever).

Boo.
D

 

[Dann]

What it comes down to is,If you dont wear a badge,you are a bad guy.

 

[MtnBiker2005]

Police Around U.S. Encrypting Radio Communications to Prevent Public Monitoring - publicintelligence.net
http://publicintelligence.net/polic...-communications-to-prevent-public-monitoring/