Upcoming Encryption

[wogggieee]

Of all things to encrypt EMS makes more sense than law enforcement dispatch

 

[ofd8001]

Social Media, and now AI slop. Locally a fire dept responded to a medical call that ended up in a fatality. Thanks to some moron with a scanner and a social media account, they posted the name/address of the deceased person before the local agency could properly identify them and do the proper notifications to family. Family found out through Social Media.
No family deserves that. Doesn't matter what someone's idea of entertainment is.

Large wildland fire that was threatening a lot of homes. Thanks to certain radio webpages that post frequencies, as well as TX frequencies and PL tones, the Baofeng army decided that it was perfectly OK to start popping up on the fire department channels giving advice, asking questions, generally getting in the way of the people trying to do their jobs.

I think the person without common decency and sense ought to be publicly outed and let social pressure deal with him. We've gotten way to nice and forgotten how effective peer pressure can be.

I've been associated with the fire service since 1974. Never had incident interference with someone getting on the radio, nor have heard much talk about that in my circles. That said, years ago, someone got a stolen radio and made some bogus calls. Thanks to our excellent radio techs, he was soon located and saw the inside of a courtroom.

With today's radio systems and their ingress security, intrusion is less and less likely.

I can see both sides of an EMS encryption desire. There have been several EMS calls I monitored during full time fire stuff, where I was close enough to unofficially respond. We gave a couple of families a little more time with loved ones who were in full arrest.

 

[n0esc]

I think the person without common decency and sense ought to be publicly outed and let social pressure deal with him. We've gotten way to nice and forgotten how effective peer pressure can be.

I've been associated with the fire service since 1974. Never had incident interference with someone getting on the radio, nor have heard much talk about that in my circles. That said, years ago, someone got a stolen radio and made some bogus calls. Thanks to our excellent radio techs, he was soon located and saw the inside of a courtroom.

With today's radio systems and their ingress security, intrusion is less and less likely.

I can see both sides of an EMS encryption desire. There have been several EMS calls I monitored during full time fire stuff, where I was close enough to unofficially respond. We gave a couple of families a little more time with loved ones who were in full arrest.

Some people just don't have critical thinking skills or an ability to read the room when it comes to the desire to be recognized for breaking news. I've long said the bane to modern society is the fact that everyone has a cell phone and is tapped into "live" real time info worldwide 24/4 and want to know everything going on Right. Now! Any time they hear sirens they want answers without thinking about the repercussions of that information.

I'm agree with @wogggieee that EMS is the one place it actually makes a bit of sense, at least with the way PHI/HIPAA is managed. A end to end encryption would allow EMS to quickly comm between prehospital and hospital staff without really having to be concerned about "who" is listening in.

My second low budget opinion is that there are much better although not necessarily free ways to manage volunteers, trained responders, or other community partners having access to call data without the general pubic and Facebook Bob hopping on YouTube live standing outside someone's front door live streaming the body bags. Plenty of solutions like PulsePoint or CodeRed that could be deployed to the necessary people rather than openly broadcast in the clear. Encryption debate aside, as a general hobby or interest, people are far more likely to own a cellphone or tablet and actively use and monitor it than they are to have a scanner or even AM/FM radio in the house at this point.

 

[mmckenna]

I think the person without common decency and sense ought to be publicly outed and let social pressure deal with him. We've gotten way to nice and forgotten how effective peer pressure can be.

That's not a reliable solution. It's reactionary.

Technology has solved this issue. While not required, we will likely see encryption used more and more in all radio services where its allowed. There's little reason not to.

As for keeping the public aware:

people are far more likely to own a cellphone or tablet and actively use and monitor it than they are to have a scanner or even AM/FM radio in the house at this point.

And that does a much better job since almost everyone has one. Keeping radio traffic in the clear for a niche hobby/user base when there are much better ways to reach a wider audience makes more sense. Getting the right information to the general public, rather than filtered through some random person with a social media account, makes more sense to a lot of agencies.

But, I suspect we will still have a lot of fire and EMS, especially smaller agencies, in the clear for a long time to come. Technology moves slowly in some areas, and low budgets limit the upgrade of new equipment.

 

[CcSkyEye]

Of all things to encrypt EMS makes more sense than law enforcement dispatch

Couldn't agree more.

 

[bearcatrp]

With about everything being hacked these days, encryption isn't hiding anything the hackers don't already have.

 

[ofd8001]

The EMS system here will have dispatch channels and hospital channels. Dispatch channels deal with assigning resources to an incident with a brief nature. As in unconscious unresponsive person. Or I need two more units. Any health info is transmitted on hospital channels. I’m perfectly fine with encrypting hospital channels but not dispatch.

 

[n0esc]

The EMS system here will have dispatch channels and hospital channels. Dispatch channels deal with assigning resources to an incident with a brief nature. As in unconscious unresponsive person. Or I need two more units. Any health info is transmitted on hospital channels. I’m perfectly fine with encrypting hospital channels but not dispatch.

And that there is where the line gets crossed from hobby interest to Gladys Kravitz territory. I enjoy scanning as much as anyone else, but realistically what value does it add hearing that they are sending an ambulance to 1313 Mockingbird Lane for a possible suicide? Or hearing an address you recognize as someone you know in passing for a stroke or heart attack?
Time and again I see posts in my local area from Facebook Fred talking about calls they heard on one of the local feeds and what they "know happend". It's almost always wrong, over reactive and inflammatory not to mention the occasions where that's the first that family is hearing about it.

 

[ofd8001]

You make my point. People will get on social media with any tidbit of information because it feeds their need to feel important. Even if they drove by 1313 Mockingbird Lane and saw emergency vehicles there and took to social media.

If folks had access to reasonable (not everything of course) information then correct information will prevail and they won't need to get on social media.

For me, the value of knowing is this: find another way, don't get caught in traffic.

 

[Robdobb]

I have a pretty good feeling that North Dakota and also probably why Minnesota is encrypting everything is because of a certain independent journalist (not naming names but you all possibly know who I'm talking about) who's known to release info before it's allowed to be released publicly. Could be wrong though.

That short ugly troll that once was sued and lost his job?

 

[KirumiTojo]

That short ugly troll that once was sued and lost his job?

Nailed it. And when I asked him once if he was the reason for ND/most of MN moving to encryption he got a real attitude with me so I think he might be one of the main reasons besides the FBI.