After a long back-and-forth between the press and the NYPD, the city council scheduled a hearing on Nov. 20 before the radios fully go dark in the coming months.
Photo by Dean Moses
NYPD brass remained tight-lipped Monday about their encryption plan for all police radios, and the future of journalists who would be denied access to real-time information on breaking news citywide.
Since the 1930s, the media have been tuned into the static chatter bursting from police radios through scanners, serving as overseers in order to report dangerous incidents to the citizens. However, that could all end in 2024 with the NYPD looking to encrypt its police channels, essentially shutting out the press from daily activities and crime responses. The department has already encrypted officers’ radios at 10 northern Brooklyn police precincts this year as part of the rollout.
This drew public criticism from news reporters and organizations, as well as criminal justice advocates and elected officials. Though the NYPD had previously pledged to provide a time-delay feed of their transmissions, opponents say any delay would impact their ability to independently cover news at it happens, and harm the fourth estate’s efforts to hold police accountable.
‘Stop giving the bad guys our game plan’
Chief of Information Technology Ruben Beltran represented the NYPD during Monday’s hearing. He called radios a “lifeline” to cops, with the main reason for the switch from traditional radio channels to encryption being potential criminals.
Beltran charged that bad actors like burglars have been found with scanners in their possession, suggesting that they had been monitoring police radios.
“We need to stop giving the bad guys our game plan,” Beltran said.
According to Beltran, the cost of the change to encryption — dubbed P25 digital implementation — will cost some $390 million and is expected to be completely be finished by December 2024, earlier than previously…
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