The Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) is implementing a phased plan to encrypt all radio channels, including dispatch, to enhance officer safety and protect the privacy of victims and witnesses.
“The Montgomery County Department of police is proceeding with a plan to encrypt all radio channels, to include dispatch channels. In following national best practices, the department is working to encrypt its emergency communications channels to protect potential victims and witnesses, while also enhancing officer safety. Encryption has been a national best practice for police communications since 2016 and other departments in the state, the National Capital Region and throughout the country have adopted this approach. Like other law enforcement agencies in the state of Maryland and across the country, MCPD’s move to full encryption will allow us to better protect victims and witnesses of criminal activity by ensuring the confidentiality of private information. This includes protecting the personal information of some of our residents with health challenges. Encryption helps law enforcement agencies manage the many risks associated with sensitive information in our response to a wide variety of emergency calls for service.
Currently, personally identifiable information pertaining to citizens through over-the-air criminal inquiries, traffic-stop related inquiries, and dispatch call and location history is being broadcast in the clear. Moving to encrypt our emergency communication will allow the department to take one step towards recommendations (or compliance) from the Federal Partnership for Interoperable Communications (FPIC).
Encrypted radio traffic will not only help protect potential victims and witnesses, but it will also help ensure operational, tactical, and investigative integrity for our officers. MCPD moving to encrypted radio traffic will protect its radio transmissions and remove the ability for criminals to intercept transmissions, allowing them to get detailed information on police tactics and investigative activity. There are numerous free scanner Apps available where anyone can listen to MCPD radio traffic in real time on a smartphone. The department has confirmed instances of criminal elements actively listening to department unencrypted radio channels. The department also believes that encryption will deter criminal acts such as placing SWAT’ing calls at homes of elected officials, appointed officials, business executives, and other high-profile residents in Montgomery County. These calls jeopardize the safety of responding officers and innocent/unaware residents.
The changeover has been planned and the process started. This change will be phased in over the next 60 to 90 days. It is not an all at once switch, the change goes radio by radio. What anyone with a scanner will possibly hear while the process goes on is an incomplete conversation as those who are encrypted talk to those that are not. Gradually our radio traffic on scanners will diminish until transmissions are heard no more. We will have complete recordings of all radio traffic for all MPIA or evidence needs.
MCPD will not be alone in the region as other police departments have encrypted their dispatch communications or have plans to encrypt them in the immediate future. MCPD dispatch channels will continue to be recorded and available through MPIA Requests. MCPD PIO will continue to provide timely, accurate, and transparent information on incidents throughout the county to the media and through our social media platforms. As always, MCPD will continue to build trust, balancing transparency with the safety of victims, witnesses and our officers.
Maryland and Regional Law Enforcement Agencies Who Are Encrypted Or Will Be In The Near Future
· Anne Arundel County Police Department
· Anne Arundel County Sheriff’s Office
· Annapolis Police
· Allegany County
· Washington County
· Baltimore City
· Saint Mary’s County
· Cecil County
· Kent County
· Queen Anne’s County
· Caroline County
· Talbot County
· Dorchester County
· Somerset County
· Worcester County
· Ocean City Police
· Cambridge Police
· Easton Police
· Elkton Police
· Hancock Police
· Princess Anne Police
· Smithsburg Police
· University of Maryland Eastern Shore
· Maryland Natural Resources Police
· Comptroller of Maryland
· Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia
· United States Capitol Police
· United States Park Police
· All Federal Law Enforcement Partners
· Delaware State Police”
Will the Montgomery County assign one of the encrypted radios to “scanner boy”? We all know he needs one and deserves it so he can broadcast all of the county’s transmissions to the general public.