Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nosiness is not a need to know

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 18:31:51 -0500

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/columnists/tom_ferrick/4711580.htm
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Wednesday, Dec 11, 2002

Tom Ferrick

Posted on Wed, Dec. 11, 2002

Tom Ferrick Jr. | Nosiness is not a need to know

By Tom Ferrick Jr.

Inquirer Columnist

Within the next few weeks, if all goes according to plan, the Philadelphia police are going to pull the plug on the folks - the good, the bad and the ugly - who eavesdrop on police radio transmissions.

As my colleague Tom Gibbons reported yesterday, the city is shucking its ancient 400- to 450-megahertz radio system and replacing it with a spiffy new 800-megahertz digital system. Total price tag: $52 million.

Actually, most of city government already is using the new system. The Police Department is among the last to switch over.

For you and me, the switch makes little difference. The new system does have a number of advantages over the old one - better reception within buildings, for one thing. It also has "inter-operability," which means all departments can communicate on the same band, if need be.

This is important post-Sept. 11. You may recall that some of the police and fire units in the World Trade Center had incompatible radio systems and never knew what the other was doing.

The new system does mean big changes for those who like to listen in to police and fire radio because it operates at a frequency that can't be picked up by existing scanners.

Eavesdroppers

Everyone who listens to police radio (a list that includes hobbyists, the media, and criminals) will be unable to listen in - at least for a little while.

But it won't take long for the scanner industry (does the name Bearcat ring a bell?) to produce scanners able to pick up Philly's 800-megahertz transmissions.

Before that day arrives, it's time to ask a question: Why shouldn't we keep the wraps on police and fire transmissions permanently?

What broad public purpose is served by allowing anyone with the right equipment (a $600-plus scanner) to listen in on these calls?

I stumbled on this issue when I was doing pieces on tow-truck operators who prey upon drivers in Philadelphia. These guys have police scanners in their trucks, listen in for accidents, and go roaring off to the scene. Sometimes they arrive before the police.

The city cannot forbid people to use scanners capable of picking up police radio. That activity is protected by federal law.

But it is legal to encrypt radio transmissions so no one can eavesdrop. (A code is entered into a radio that allows it to be heard only by those with the same code.)

Philadelphia's new digital system can be encrypted. In fact, the police have decided to use encryption on radios used by special units, such as narcotics, homicide and SWAT teams.

Encryption allowed

Why not go the next step and encrypt all police and fire radio? Because the Street administration has decided to keep it open to those who can afford the new scanners.

I understand it is due mostly to concerns about town-watch groups and the news media who want access to the new system, but I couldn't get anyone in the administration to discuss the issue in detail.

City Councilman Frank Rizzo is upset that the administration didn't encrypt all the new radios. He thinks it is time to reevaluate the practice of allowing these transmissions to be overheard, especially in this post-Sept. 11 world. I agree.

Rizzo told me tales of how criminals use scanners to monitor police activity:

Police report their use by teams of burglars, one of whom breaks into a store while the other stays in the car monitoring police radio.

Then there are thieves who phone in false crime-in-progress reports to send police to one end of the district while they hit their score in another.

"When the police raid drug houses, they usually find a scanner," Rizzo said. "It's standard equipment."

(It helps that the Narcotics Unit's radios will be encrypted, but police tell me a lot of information spills over onto the general band.)

It's nice for hobbyists and us reporters to be able to listen in to police radio, but "nice" isn't reason enough to keep the transmissions public.

Use the arrival of the new system to put an end to the eavesdropping.

Tom Ferrick's column runs Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Contact him at 215-854-2714 or [email-masked].

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