Just playing a little game of catch up here;
"Unless your located on an island you need to consider interoperability issues. Cost is normally the driving factor, but grant funds may offset some of the costs if you participate in a state communications plan."
Actually I do live on an island but that way beside the point. We had interop when the county and state trunked systems went into operation years ago but when a state repeater system specifically for interop went up at the municipal building the FD and PD both got new systems with the PD going encrypted. Yeah, that's where the "surplus funds" came from and so far the state system has never been used but for the money grab.
"Encryption? Why would you want that when it can't be monitorable??!!"
Well duh, that's the whole idea behind encryption now isn't it?
"That statement alone adds thousands of dollars to almost each radio, let alone the entire system."
So what? When money comes down from the fed and the state matches the grant what do they care as long as the municipality isn't paying for it?
"Those departments that have gone to a total encrypted system have
things to hide."
No more than any other, only it saves the trouble of "looking over their shoulder" so now they talk openly without switching to "the secret channel" or cell phone.
"Not only that, but it prevents the news media and the public to keep
tabs on what is going on."
Right, there's no spin like spin on a press release. There's a downside directly related to public safety however, local interoperability is lost. Take the city of Asbury Park for example. When the police, fire and EMS could talk on each other's channels they had full interop but when the PD went encrypted it was lost and response time rose sharply. Now messages must be relayed through three dispatchers and you all know how the game of Chinese Telephone works.
"Those departments that have placed encryption into some of their radios and on some channels bear much better in the publics eye."
HUH? There's none so blind as the public eye! That is assuming you meant fare rather than bear which makes no sense.
"Those department heads that jump up and down demanding to have an encrypted radio system don't seem to stay an appointed department head very long after the public starts an outcry."
WHAT outcry? Does the word "clueless" mean anything to you? The public is not invited to closed council meetings and neither the agenda nor the minutes are published. The public neither knows nor cares about police radio, all that matters is they catch the bad guys.
"It serves no real purpose but costing lots of extra money and will shorten your stay in office."
Baloney. The public is willing to write a blank check as long as they feel "protected" be it by the cops, the DHS, NSA, the Patriot Act or "making the world safe for democracy".
Now wake up to the reality of American politics. For as long as I can remember (and that's a pretty long time) cops have had their "secret channels" and have held the monitoring public in low regard for fear of bad guys with radios. I refer you to He Walked By Night, a 1949 movie about a criminal monitoring the LAPD. Fast forward to the FCC mandate that all transmissions of a sensitive nature (cops consider them ALL sensitive) be encrypted and police paranoia stakes a claim, all that's missing is the gold. Fast forward another 20 years and creation of the DHS and federal funding of interoperable and encrypted radio systems, thar's GOLD in them thar hills! With state DHS matching funds building such systems is a breeze so now we have encrypted systems popping up like mushrooms but it's a two edged sword. It satisfies the cops' "need for security" while increasing public suspicion and mistrust so the cops seeing the public as bad guys has led directly to the public seeing the cops as bad guys with the government aiding and abetting it all. So do I have to tell you who the REAL bad guys are? I'm sure you've guessed, you've known them all along.
Er, make that a FIVE edged sword, a false sense of security, loss of interoperability, increased response time, increased public suspicion and mistrust and all at increased cost. Kull The Conqueror would be proud of THIS armorer!
Now before you accuse me of paying too much attention to Rush Limbaugh or having my tin foil hat on too tight let me tell you all you need are copies of the Congressional Register and that of your state to see who is funding what and why. If you have enough working brain cells you can network you can still add 2 and 2 and come up with 4. Oh while you're at it take a closer look at what else is stinking at the bottom of the pork barrel, you'd be outraged at how your money is being wasted.
"...if the poop really hit the fan, we can cross talk on scanners."
I plugged a mic into mine once, it didn't work.
