Hello. As must of us that listen to or “scan” our local emergency services know, listening to our local police, fire departments, EMS, Etc. will soon be a thing of the past. I know in my area most have switched to a digital system which I understand. But they are also encrypting feeds so the general public cannot listen. That is not okay. I feel as though we the people who are paying not only for such expensive radio systems, but the departments in general, should have the right to be able to monitor those channels. It is a wonderful tool to be able to know what’s going on in the area. It is a huge safety concern from my prospective. I do believe that anything above the state level should be encrypted for national security. Even with the local departments an encrypted “operations” channel would be ideal for the personnel’s safety. But for the general “dispatching” I feel as if the public should have the right to monitor.
Good observations. Alas, the problem is not with the Federal Communications Commission, but with the Department of Justice and a policy on “Personally Identifiable Information” (aka PII) being sent unencrypted that is leading the change - too many agencies are encrypting everything, even if PII is not disclosed (most radio systems in my area have a separate channel for officers to request PII, and I have no issue with that channel being encrypted).
I recently submitted a detailed proposal to codify in federal law that agencies must keep their dispatch channels unencrypted not only for the casual listeners on scanners, but also the “new media” that monitors and reports incidents via Facebook/X. I suggest you take a read and join the discussion there:
Not a new submission.