The extremely popular police scanner has fallen silent for many
The report recently sounded on Indianapolis police radio: Two aggressive pit bulls, with no leash in sight, were running around, a caller complained. Then came an alert about a motorist, possibly armed, heading toward Indianapolis, reportedly having homicidal thoughts.
Police were later dispatched to investigate reports of overdoses, suicidal people and domestic violence.
Through it all, hundreds of Indianapolis residents listened.
Once accessible to a relatively small number of radio enthusiasts who invested in hardware and developed technical expertise, emergency channels have attracted huge audiences in recent years as websites and apps made tuning in as easy as turning on the television.
“I just like to listen because I want to know what’s going on,” said Bobbi Sue Hester, an Indianapolis resident who has listened to police radio at night for 20 years. “I guess I’m a curious person, you know?”
Mrs. Hester may soon lose access to her evening pastime. Indianapolis, where the police channel is among the most listened to in the country, is one of several cities considering limiting access to real-time communications between dispatchers and medical responders by encrypting those conversations. Encryption encodes a radio signal in a way that makes it accessible only to authorized users.
Denver, San Francisco, San Diego County, Baltimore, ChicagoNew York and Sioux Falls are among the jurisdictions that have already encrypted radio signals to some extent. Minneapolis, whose police department is under intense pressure to be more transparent and accountable, plans to introduce encryption next year.
Law enforcement officials say they have long seen value in allowing a small number of citizens — including journalists covering breaking news — to hear their communications. But as listenership soared in a country where true-crime shows and reality television are wildly popular, the risks of allowing unfettered access — sometimes including names, addresses and phone numbers — worried public safety officials.
“The way it is completely open and uncensored at this point poses some risk to public safety and could also put people’s personal information and that of victims at risk,” said Chief Brian O’Hara of the Minneapolis Police Department . upgrading its radios to introduce encryption next year.
Two recent incidents, Chief O’Hara said, made the case for encryption. In one case, a search for a murder suspect was monitored and relayed in real time on social media, which Chief O’Hara said posed a risk of tipping off the suspect. In another case, a report of a kidnapped student went viral, causing panic among students and parents for days, even though it was unfounded.
Press freedom groups and other organizations advocating for government transparency have expressed concern about the trend toward encryption. Greg Nojeim, director of the Security and Surveillance Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said police departments must find ways to mitigate privacy concerns without completely cutting off access to these radio channels.
“There is a social benefit to getting immediate information about emergencies, and I think we should hesitate to take measures that would reduce this,” Mr. Nojeim said. “If there’s a shooting near mine, I want to know about it.”
Americans have long listened to emergency communications channels. A few decades ago, tuning required buying a radio, equipping it with a crystal and learning to set the desired frequency.
That all changed in 2012 after the launch of Broadcastify, a company that collected thousands of emergency and aviation radio feeds and made them accessible to a constellation of websites and apps. Broadcastify and the platforms that rely on its feeds have free versions that are ad-supported and premium versions that are ad-free and provide access to archives.
Broadcastify founder Lindsay Blanton said his interest in police radios began in the 1980s after watching his grandmother spend hours glued to a radio in her home in Charlottesville, Virginia, resounding with police and fire calls.
“It’s very much part of American culture for people from small towns to have scanners to monitor what’s happening in their community,” he said. Older women are among the most dedicated Broadcastify listeners, Mr. Blanton said.
At any given time, tens of thousands of people are listening to emergency radio messages on Broadcastify’s website and the commercial apps that rely on its feeds. During crises, such as the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the 2017 mass shooting at a Las Vegas concert, audiences grow exponentially, Mr. Blaton said.
Adam Scott Wandt, a professor of public policy at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said he sees value in allowing journalists to monitor police radios to cover the news. But he said he was concerned about the number of people who now routinely listen in as police respond to calls about domestic violence, sexual assault, suicide attempts and pursuits of suspects.
“Let’s face it, we live in a time where true crime shows and podcasts are quite popular and there are a lot of true crime enthusiasts who enjoy listening to live police broadcasts,” he said. “But we must remember that voyeurs are not only listening, but the shooter they are looking for could potentially be listening as well.”
Some cities and counties that have restricted access to scanner traffic have taken steps to keep the public informed.
Then Las Vegas encrypted his police channel in 2018, a system was set up to allow some journalists to maintain access. After facing backlash against its encryption plan, Chicago agreed to continue providing its feed to Broadcastify, but… with a delay of 30 minutes. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department began providing a logbook of emergency calls where exact addresses and names are excluded.
In the Indianapolis area, where there is a large and dedicated community of emergency radio listeners, encryption is in place has led to heated discussions this year. The city had one unusually high number of the number of murders in 2021 and 2022, with extra attention paid to crime. The behavior of the police has also attracted special attention in the city this year, as police officers have fired weapons in humans anyway 18 incidents.
Mike Hubbs, the director of the 911 center in central Indiana’s Hamilton County, which implemented encryption over the summer, said dispatchers across the state have come to view the general public listening to their work as an added stressor during a high occupation. .
“There is tremendous support for encryption within the law enforcement community,” said Mr. Hubbs, who previously led the Indianapolis 911 center from 2014 until last year.
At any given time, more than 800 people are listening to the Indianapolis Police Channel on Broadcastify and the Scanner Radio app.
The Rev. Charles Harrison, a United Methodist minister, is a regular listener. He leads a group of residents who respond to crime scenes to support victims and identify the root causes of violence. Keeping track of police operations in real time has been critical in his efforts, according to Mr. Harrison.
Recent police shootings have strained trust between residents and officers, he said. The prospect of encryption – cutting off what residents can hear – worries him.
“I think this would increase tension and distrust,” he said.
For Ms. Hester, a longtime listener from Indianapolis, encryption feels like a mistake for another reason: The scanner has made her realize how hard the job is.
“Those officers are going through hell,” said Ms. Hester, who falls asleep at night listening to Broadcastify. “If people heard half of what we hear on the scanner, they would really appreciate our officers.”