zlacker

There are more Encrypted than you think, though most Responsible Dept will leave the general dispatch channel open and only encrypt tactical talk groups

My City Encrypts 100% communications including EMS, Fire, Police and Emergency repose, it is a stupid policy but...

https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Encrypted_Agencies

>>syshum+(OP)
I understand the desire to be able to listen in/oversight during riots and conflicts between demonstrators and police. It make less sense in cases where someone is a victim of a crime or a patient being transported as such individuals are protected from the public prying eye. When recording devices and storage is so cheap as it is now it should be assumed that any communication traveling in clear is captured and stored.

>>belorn+O9
>>It make less sense in cases where someone is a victim of a crime or a patient being transported as such individuals are protected from the public prying eye

Few things there, first "victim of a crime", most area's criminal reports are public records as they should be. Allowing the police to operate in secret is a very bad thing

Further outside of location information is a rare that other personal info is transmitted over the air anyway, general descriptions etc sure but...

Finally I think the public value, and transparency we get from having open air dispatch far far far far outweighs the limited privacy concerns. People say the same things when police are mandated to wear body cams, just like in those situations the public right to know what the police are actually doing far outweighs some minor privacy concerns.

We need FULL transparency in policing right now.

>>syshum+F01
Here in Sweden, the public record goes in effect only after the investigation has been closed. Before that it is kept secret. The record can also be partially hidden in some circumstances in order to protect the integrity of the victim.

And even when its public record, there is a large consensus that some of it should not be published to a larger audience. There was a now old incident where pirate bay had a torrent of a public record covering the investigation of death of several children. It was one of the few torrents that if I recall right, the pirate bay voluntarily took down. A lot of people commented that police should have used more discretion in what they put in the public record.

Body cams has the same issue. It is good that they exist. There is however cases when the record should be kept secret. The default should always be transparency, with exceptions when there is good reason to keep it away from the public. As a obvious example, the body cam recording from a police arriving to a rape scene with the undressed victim should not be public record.