Up until this week, the San Diego Police Department has broadcast police calls on an open channel. It’s been a resource for people who follow crime and monitor the police. But some say it has its drawbacks.
“In the past we were not encrypted, which meant that by using police scanners anyone in the public, the media, etc. could listen in on all of our radio communications,” said San Diego Police Lt. Daniel Meyer. “And as you know when it comes to 911 calls and the information that’s conveyed from our dispatch center to our officers, we’re conveying sensitive information.”
By encrypting those messages San Diego police are following a national and statewide trend that is making personally owned scanners go silent. A 2020 mandate by the California Department of Justice ordered all police departments to carry out the encryption…