Oakland police to cut off public from live radio feeds, hiding communications from airwaves

OAKLAND For decades the society has had the ability to tune into radio channels where Oakland police and other Bay Area law enforcement agencies discuss exigency calls and coordinate responses The police scanner feeds are a prime source of transparency around cop activity but in the coming months the Oakland Police Department will retreat into its own private encrypted channels out of sight from the inhabitants The process which was scheduled to begin last Monday involves physically re-programming every device held by the department per an internal memo sent out earlier this month The plan is to update all the handhelds and in-car radios before we move over to the encrypted channels sometime in the late summer or early fall this year Carlo Beckman a project manager at OPD wrote in the memo obtained by this news organization City spokesperson Sean Maher reported Oakland will not incur additional costs for encrypting its radios because the officers devices are already equipped with the needed utility On Friday state Sen Josh Becker D-Menlo Park decried the notion of another police department moving to encrypt its radio traffic The senator has repeatedly tried to pass measure in new years to significantly restrict law enforcement agencies ability to encrypt their communications framing it as a key means to hold officers accountable for their actions This is a negative we want access for journalists we want access for the masses Becker stated in an interview I think it s a loss for the community it s a loss for journalism Chief of Police Floyd Mitchell speaks during a press conference on Monday Dec in Oakland Calif City leaders and region members took part in the event to call for the continued backing of Oakland s Ceasefire scheme to reduce gun violence Aric Crabb Bay Area News Group His work has coincided with law enforcement agencies across the region going effectively radio silent to the society s ears It is a relatively current trend the Antioch Police Department became only the second department in California to encrypt its channels when it voluntarily made the switch in just years before multiple scandals ripped through the agency amid states of widespread civil rights abuses San Jose Santa Clara County sheriff s Livermore Walnut Creek Mountain View and San Francisco are among the agencies who have done so more just now Given that such radio traffic has been publicly accessible in California since the s Becker has argued there s no reason that anything should change now The Oakland Police Department s communications unit on Friday argued that encryption ensures that sensitive information remains secure while citing the California Department of Justice directive to protect personally-identifying information Encrypting our channels is a critical step in strengthening operational measure and enhancing the safety of our first responders while continuing to aid citizens safety the department disclosed in a message Even several privacy advocates however expressed unease about the police department s move Brian Hofer chair of Oakland s Privacy Advisory Commission noted in certain instances police may legitimately need to shield their communications Encrypted radios he commented may help prevent officers serving a search warrant from inadvertently tipping off accused who could arm themselves or destroy evidence Police have echoed the argument saying they ve arrested persons of interest carrying scanners But those instances are relatively rare Hofer added and on balance there is a greater need for transparency into establishment actions There s got to be a million different technical workarounds to this Hofer stated That to me undercuts the justification for spending this money Unlike almost every other law enforcement agency in Northern California the city s police department has been under the watch of a federal court appointed monitor for more than two decades due to a string of abuses dating back to the Riders brutality occurrence in the early s The oversight has been repeatedly extended by a judge amid a revolving door of police chiefs certain of whom have lasted less than a week in office and a run of new scandals often involving officers lying about their misconduct An Oakland police dispatcher handles a call for institution in the department s newly-renovated operationis center Monday June in Oakland Calif The city spent to upgrade computers phone systems and ergonomics to create a more seamless response scenario between dispatchers and police officers in the field For a police department that wants to escape the weight of federal oversight I think more transparency is called for not less Hofer added The state s Department of Justice led by then-Attorney General Xavier Becerra authored a memo in October ordering law enforcement agencies to prevent inhabitants access to a highly confidential criminal database The DOJ suggested encrypting radio traffic as a way to secure personal information kept in the database which is known as the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System or CLETS Notably the state directive also advises that law enforcement agencies can absolutely restrict certain CLETS information while allowing for radio traffic with the information necessary to provide general safety In other words police are not required to encrypt their radios But chosen agencies appear to have interpreted it that way including the San Jose Police Department which in a January memo referred to the state directive as a new DOJ requirement The memo noted that San Jose police were already in compliance having hidden greater part of their day-to-day dispatch channels from the community a year before amid the outset of the coronavirus pandemic A few Oakland city personnel seemed to be under a similar impression on Friday The city s general works and fire departments use the same handheld models as the police but administrators explained Friday that only the police are pursuing encryption That assumption experts stated carries new risks for the city and its police department When you encrypt radios populace information becomes sort of discretionary information noted Tracy Rosenberg executive director of San Francisco nonprofit Media Alliance In other words the district will be notified when law enforcement chooses to notify them That could potentially leave a lot of gaps Staff writer Robert Salonga contributed reporting