![]() ![]() One person who often listens to radio scanner traffic is Imperial Beach resident Marcus Boyd. “ folks that are doing formal cop watch or people that are simply listening in and seeing about whether it’s fires or something in their apartment building, some kind of police action, really can have a significant impact,” Fishman said.Ĭalifornia Court upholds firing of LAPD officers who ignored robbery to play Pokémon GoĪ California appeals court has upheld the firing of two Los Angeles police officers who were caught playing Pokémon Go instead of responding to a robbery at the Crenshaw Mall in 2017. Miller noted that he was not advocating for access to the personal data of people being investigated by the sheriff’s department or other law enforcement agencies.ĭarwin Fishman, who has served on the city of San Diego’s Community Review Board on Police Practices, criticized the sheriff’s department’s record on transparency and said full encryption of radio communication is the “wrong way to move into this era.” Police shootings, any active shooter, rapes, thefts - these directly impact our families, and we need to know and be ahead of what going on.” “We cannot wait for law enforcement to inform us of things that are happening in our community. ![]() “We need this type of access for trust and transparency’s sake,” he said. Miller, from the Racial Justice Coalition of San Diego, said Friday outside sheriff’s department headquarters that the move to full encryption of radio communications runs contrary to the current demand for more transparency from law enforcement agencies. The changes include raising the minimum age for officers to 21 and allowing badges to be taken away for excessive force, dishonesty and racial bias.įor years, anyone with a scanner has had the ability to tune into the unencrypted radio communications, more so in recent years with the advent of web and cellphone scanner apps. Newsom approves sweeping reforms to law enforcement in California “It’s not always feasible for us to switch channels,” Baggs said, adding that it could be “difficult or sometimes impossible” for deputies to switch from an unencrypted to an encrypted channel to protect personal information, especially in situations that unfold quickly.Ĭalifornia Gov. Amber Baggs, a spokesperson, said full encryption was the better option for the department to comply with the Department of Justice order. The sheriff’s department made the switch to encrypted channels Tuesday. That’s usually when personal information is broadcast over radio traffic. ![]() Other times, they ask dispatchers to pull the information from the databases. Police officers sometimes run background checks on their own, using their department-issued cellphones or computers in their patrol vehicles. In San Diego County, the only policing agency that said it did not plan to fully encrypt its radio communications was the San Diego Police Department, which uses unencrypted dispatch channels as well as separate, encrypted channels through which personal information can be shared privately. The radio silence, they say, will force members of the public, including the news media, to rely on law enforcement agencies’ discretion in releasing information about public safety matters. Police reform advocates say the switch to encrypted channels is problematic. The October 2020 mandate gave agencies two options: to limit the transmission of database-obtained personal information on public channels or to encrypt their radio traffic. Such information - names, driver’s license numbers, dates of birth and other information from the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, or CLETS - sometimes is broadcast over police radios. The department is the latest law enforcement agency in the county and state to cut off access to radio communications in response to a California Department of Justice mandate that required agencies to protect certain personal information that law enforcement personnel obtain from state databases. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department has encrypted its radio communications, blocking the public from listening to information about safety matters in real time.
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