from a public safety communications manager's standpoint, I see both sides of the issue.
For years, scanners have been in the public's hands. Most modern amateur radio VHF/UHF radios also tune outside the ham bands, nothing new here. A handful of enterprising bad guys have used scanners or even transceivers programmed to an agencies' radio system during the commission of a crime. The majority of our radio systems were (and still are) analog FM VHF/UHF systems. Encryption was used by Federal agencies and those rich enough to afford it, used early digital modulation codecs, suffered poor audio quality, and some had reduced coverage. Managing keys was also an issue, radios frequently lost keys, required rekying with a handheld device. A few systems (think those three letter ones) supported advanced over the air re-keying.
Fast forward to the 2000's. Specifically 9/11/2001. The industry had been pushing a new digital modulation format known a project 25 phase I. P25 was originally intended as a uniform standard for digital modulation for public safety radio, during the 90's many vendors came out with various proprietary codecs that weren't compatible. After 9/11, a "crisis" of "interoperability" was created, by the Federal government and some agencies that just wanted new radios. Billions have been spent on new hardware.
Encryption is much easier in both P25 and other new digital modes because by nature it's already in the digital domain. Other digital formats in land mobile radio such as NXDN and DMR also support software based encryption. Gone are the days when encrypted radio traffic sounded poor, had less range, costly, and required complex key management. Loading encryption keys can be done over the air at the click of the mouse.
Recently, with the availability of internet feeds of scanner audio supplied by private individuals, there are many concerns, some of them valid, why allowing all of your agency radio traffic to be sent in the clear. One site, RadioReference, even captures and stores audio it sends and charges a fee for access to these archives. This radio traffic can, by it's nature, contain sensitive information inadvertently given over the air. Sometimes radio traffic contains incidents in which the last words of an officer, firefighter or first responder are uttered. I heard this first hand on a recent audio feed of a fatality commercial building fire in Asheville, NC earlier this summer. It was the absolute darkest hour for that agency, and I can see why one would not want this being sent over the internet, captured and stored all over the world. Families of loved ones lost in the line of duty certainly don't want to relive them. Recently some stories of criminals using scanner apps that provide live feeds have been used to thwart law enforcement in hot pursuit. Anyone who can operate a cellphone can use an app or a web browser and get access anywhere in the world. Here's a youtube video of a guy in the UK sending internet audio of the LAPD to his personally owned Team Talk radio (he can't listen to the local police as they have moved to a digital TETRA encrypted network in 2004!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHiRC8Gpovw
Gone are the days where someone who wants to listen to your agencies' radio traffic have to be in your systems coverage area, with a scanner or radio properly programmed and configured to do it. And programming most scanners (until recent developments of products like the Home Patrol) required at least a modest understanding of how our radio systems work, channel frequencies, in case of trunking systems: control channels and talkgroup assignments, etc. Now someone can be anywhere in the world and tune in. No knowledge of anything needed. It's easy to see why someone with a nefarious purpose can use this as a tool to aid in the commission of a crime. Your lookout could be across the country, listening to an audio feed, texting you where the boys in blue are.
But the real reason encryption gets enabled is to keep the media out. Media often show up before our primary units do. and often times they get in the way. We've had drills where they overhear radio traffic and create a scene out of NOTHING because of what they THOUGHT they heard on our radio system.
So it's easy to see the bad side and something we do have a valid concern over. Our responder safety is paramount, it's why we are here as support staff. But many of us also understand that full time encryption of a radio system also has some consequences, including locking out nearby agencies who also use scanners, or in many cases, radios are programmed to operate on nearby systems. This prevents that pro-active officer who listens out while on patrol to his adjacent agency radio traffic and gets a heads up on that armed robbery that just occurred. This also prevents the many law abiding citizens who keep an ear out and neighborhood watch folks from knowing what happened.
Encrypted and proprietary radio systems are often a barrier in interagency interoperability. Right now, public safety radio systems in most areas are segmented, use different frequencies, modes, etc. Some agencies in the same counties are using legacy equipment while others use advanced digital trunking systems. Where I work, we have 14 different trunked radio systems, none of which are interconnected. A couple are full time encrypted and allow limited access for mutual aid ID's. Can you see where this is a problem?
In years to come as 700MHz LTE becomes a new standard, all public safety radio will eventually be encrypted. It's happened in other countries who have more centralized government. In the UK, they moved off analog trunked radio systems in the early part of the decade to TETRA. In many other countries, use of a scanner is a taboo subject and will get you time in prison. We've enjoyed a lot of liberties here. I don't want to see them go away, but I also see it from another side that if the cases of scanner apps become common, it WILL force agencies to encrypt.
In 2013, all part 90 licenses (not just public safety) from 50-512MHz will have to switch to a narrower bandwidth (2.5KHz) or be off the air. This means much legacy analog equipment will have to be replaced. Many agencies are switching to other non-P25 digital formats such as DMR that currently cannot be scanned, and if encryption is used (which is a cheap software option for these radios) it then become ILLEGAL under Federal law to intercept, assuming you can break the encryption. Radio vendors are pushing digital radio systems hot and heavy these days, even to small agencies who don't need them. When they hear about incidents where scanner apps make the news that reminds a salesman to mention how easy and cheap software encryption is for these new systems and adds it to the ticket.
Penetrating any encryption in the USA is a violation of both the communications act of 1934 and the Electronic Communications
Privacy Act. For this reason, no scanners made support the capability to decrypt anything. Of course with patience and time one can do anything, but if you streamed an encrypted agencies' traffic over the Internet, it would not be hard to find you and shut it down.
The next few years in our industry is going to be interesting. Sad to say, the scanner may go into the pile with your cassette deck, VCR, pager if some have their way. Enjoy it while you still can.
