Vallejo PD moves to all-digital radio system
The move will help officers better communicate with each other, but some worry that the switch will lead to a lack of transparency.
(Photo courtesy Vallejo Police Department; Graphic by Solano NewsNet)
The Vallejo Police Department has upgraded its radio systems to broadcast in an all-digital format, a move that the agency says will better serve the public and allow it to connect with fellow officers in other jurisdictions.
As of mid-April, all Vallejo officers are equipped with hand-held and car radios that are able to access the East Bay Regional Communications System, or EBRCS, an all-digital broadcast system used by public safety agencies in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
The upgrade allows Vallejo to move away from an antiquated analog radio system that limited police traffic to a single two-way transmission per frequency. EBRCS uses a technology called Project 25, a computerized system that breaks conversations into digital “talk groups” that are simulcast across all available frequencies. Handheld and car radios are programmed to scan all frequencies available to an agency, and digital information transmitted by a computer automatically locks on to the correct talk group.
When used as part of a system, the technology helps an agency like the Vallejo Police Department interact with other agencies that are on the same system, including those in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. The technology also allows the agency to seamlessly plug in to similar Project 25 systems operated in other jurisdictions, including north Solano County where public safety agencies in Vacaville, Fairfield, Suisun City and Dixon made the switch from an analog radio system to an all-digital one in January.
While the move undoubtedly helps public safety officials better communicate with each other, digital radio systems like EBRCS and the one used in north Solano County have drawn scrutiny because they allow law enforcement agencies and others using the system to encrypt signals that were once freely and openly available to ordinary citizens with police scanners. No commercially-available police scanners — even ones that are compatible with digital systems — are able to tune in to encrypted signals.
Earlier this year, competing newspapers in Palo Alto published editorials that were critical of the police department’s decision to encrypt radio frequencies, which made it difficult for reporters at each publication to stay on top of breaking news. Thomas DuBois, the mayor of Palo Alto, later acknowledged that the city’s decision to allow the police department to encrypt its signals was an error.
“I think that the way that they did it without understanding the point of view of the [city] council and the press, and how this might impact transparency in the community, is clearly a mistake,” DuBois said.
Amid similar opposition in other parts of California, state lawmakers two years ago drafted legislation that would require law enforcement agencies to provide journalists access to their encrypted signals. The measures, Assembly Bill 1555, died in committee less than one year after it was introduced.
There is already some indication that the Vallejo Police Department is utilizing encryption technology for their new digital radio networks. Sean West, a social media savant who operates the real-time crime reporting website Vallejo Crime & Safety, said he believes the majority of Vallejo’s priority police dispatches have been relegated to an encrypted system that he and others cannot access.
“I have not heard any major calls in the past 24 hours,” West said in a Twitter conversation with Solano NewsNet on Thursday, adding that he intends to start filing public records requests to learn about police actions on a weekly basis, so he can “report after the fact.”
A spokesperson for the Vallejo Police Department has not yet returned a request from Solano NewsNet seeking information about whether the agency is using encrypted channels and to what extent.
In other jurisdictions, law enforcement officials have responded to similar concerns expressed by West and the newspapers in Palo Alto by affirming their commitment to transparency and public access while at the same time expressing a need to protect personal information and the safety of officers.
Those agencies have increasingly pointed to Broadcastify, a website that collates real-time feeds of public safety broadcasts and makes them available to stream on the Internet. While Broadcastify has a policy that largely self-regulates certain dispatches — broadcasts from tactical law enforcement channels are not allowed — personal information (and sometimes misinformation) does come through on its feeds, and those dispatches are often amplified on blogs and social media in a way that cannot be easily contained. (Disclosure: Solano NewsNet operates a social media group where real-time reporting often uses information obtained from police dispatches.)
Law enforcement officials say using encrypted channels helps ensure personal and sensitive police information can’t be used by bad actors who are using police scanners or Broadcastify. But those encrypted channels can also hinder public access to critical information during actual emergencies.
Reporters at Palo Alto’s news organizations found this out in February when they attempted to cover a large wind and rainstorm that toppled trees, destroyed power lines and flooded roadways. In a normal setting, the Palo Alto Daily Post said it would have covered the storm by sending reporters to take photos, conduct interviews and provide real-time information based on public safety dispatches.
“Now that our police scanner is silenced, we weren’t able to do that,” an editor wrote. “The real loser here is the public. They get less information and the police get to keep more secrets. So much for all that talk about transparency.”
In Vallejo, transparency is an issue of paramount public importance: For years, police there have been saddled with accusations of officer misconduct and overreach. In more than a handful of cases, the incidents that sparked the biggest calls for accountability and transparency started with a dispatch heard on the open airwaves.
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