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Police Scanner Encryption: Good or Bad?

Discussion in 'Videos and Podcasts' started by K0LWC, Sep 11, 2018.

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  1. K0LWC

    K0LWC XML Subscriber QRZ Page

     
    W7YDA likes this.
  2. KK5JY

    KK5JY Ham Member QRZ Page

    I wonder if this question might be better addressed on Radio Reference, rather than here?
     
  3. W7UUU

    W7UUU Director, QRZ Forums Lifetime Member 133 QRZ HQ Staff Life Member QRZ Page

    In fairness, he posted it in the "Videos and Podcasts" section. It is a radio topic after all.... seems about right to me. I don't think the OP is looking for a discussion but rather just promoting a video on that topic.

    Just my 2/100 of a buck

    Dave
    W7UUU
     
  4. KK5JY

    KK5JY Ham Member QRZ Page

    I was mostly going by the title...

    ...and the first minute or so of the video.
    Same here. :)
     
  5. AB3TQ

    AB3TQ Ham Member QRZ Page

    I think he did a good job of laying out the situation. I think he only missed one thing. In some areas the police traffic is encrypted. Neighboring communities that have decided that they can not afford encryption capable radios have effectively been cut off from some very important information.

    Some areas have abandoned encryption, or use it a lot less often, when it has proven to adversely affect cooperation with neighboring resources.

    But the trend is toward more encryption, not less. It doesn't bother me.
     
  6. K3XR

    K3XR Ham Member QRZ Page

    Any argument against encrypting public safety communications would need to be very compelling to convince those agencies or government officials to remove it which would seem to be a difficult task. I am 100% in favor of encryption when it impacts officer safety or the security of an operation and 100% against it for routine radio traffic where there is clearly no security issue.

    Digital traffic can be found on places like Broadcastify https://www.broadcastify.com/

    In this area there are also channels where the digital and not necessarily encrypted traffic is rebroadcast. For example the PA State Police on the Turnpike rebroadcast on a 156. MHz channel. There is also significant public safety traffic from different agencies that is encrypted the newest in this area a 700 MHz countywide system.
     
    Last edited: Sep 12, 2018
  7. K6DWI

    K6DWI Ham Member QRZ Page

    P25 encryption has been around for quite a few years in many departments throughout the country.
    Many scanner enthusiasts have had scanners for digital transmissions for almost as many years,
    notably the Grecom PSR-800 (long gone).
    The Uniden Bearcat digital series is also well known and continues to upgrade their series of digital scanners.
    The video is years late in the making.
    Broadcastify only re-transmits by parties that sign up to "broadcast their feeds"
    and can only listen to those few channels that are actually re-broadcast by those members.
     
  8. K6DWI

    K6DWI Ham Member QRZ Page

    BTW, broadcastify does NOT broadcast dedicated tactical, car-to-car, SWAT, narcotics, detectives or any other channels or talkgroups that are not routine dispatch or special events related.
     
  9. KV6O

    KV6O Ham Member QRZ Page

    If you live in the Denver area, then you're aware that Aurora went with total encryption when they went P25 phase II. Even for "routine" dispatch traffic. A LOT of the reasoning behind that is because James Holmes spent MONTHS preparing and listening to Aurora's dispatch traffic to learn how they operated, tactics used, response times, etc. So "routine" dispatch traffic was used against them. His apartment was booby trapped across town and he had planned to attack in the theater when many or all the resources were tied up at his apartment. It's only because that plan failed that things weren't MUCH worse.

    In Aurora, you can review dispatch traffic via a CORA request. And I completely understand. It's not just an officer safety issue for them - the open dispatch traffic can allow the bad guys to work the system against all of us.
     

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