#POLICE SCANNER PORTLAND UPGRADE#

The bureau was told police wanted to encrypt their radios to “protect officer safety and confidential information,” according to a spokesperson. New York City is promising a slow “ 3-5 year transition.”īut in Portland, it seems only public agencies got a head’s up about the move: The city’s Bureau of Emergency Communications said staff had meetings this spring with police and partner agencies to make sure no wires got crossed when they switched to encryption. A small police department in Pennsylvania put a poll on its Facebook page. Denver police negotiated with local media outlets for eight months before making the switch. In other cities, ending a historically open stream of public information has proven controversial, and law enforcement agencies have had to tread carefully. Baldwin-caller reporting an 'nonconsensual exorcism' taking place - females screaming to 'get the devil out'- Portland OR Alerts February 25, 2016 “And not to mention for we kind of lose our bread and butter.” Everybody has to wait for the police to tell us what happened, as opposed to people having listened and heard what is going on in real time.” “If they go all encrypted, then they completely control the entire narrative of anything that’s going on. “People have the right to listen, and they have a right to know what’s going on in their city,” said a contributor going by Giles, who has been a part of the team since 2012. While police say it’s a necessary shift to protect the personal information of officers, those who heard the scanner fall silent saw it as an ill-timed blow to police transparency, coming right as cries for accountability reached fever pitch. Nearly everything will be kept out of the public’s earshot, permanently. The bureau’s shooting to encrypt the original dispatch channels sometime next year. They brought police dispatch onto the already encrypted networks they used for sensitive information. The Central precinct channel is silent.Ī spokesperson for the Portland police said they’d been planning to encrypt their channels since November due “to safety and information security concerns.” But when the protests for racial justice began, the local police jumped ahead of schedule. The dispatch channels for Portland Police Bureau’s East and North precincts now emit an emergency tone every 30 seconds or so.

No more talk of fires, car crashes or welfare checks. Many have a background in emergency services and listen to the scanner the way others might listen to their local radio stations or a podcast - in the background, when time allows.īut in early June, members turned their scanners to the Portland police dispatch channels and heard nothing. Others think it’s a bot.įew are aware it’s actually a loose collective of self-described scanner nerds who get a kick out of casually listening to the police radio and posting the information they think people want to hear. Some people think the information is coming straight from the city. But not everyone bothers with the fine print. The page is up-front in its Twitter biography that it is not an official agency. Over that time, the account has earned a following larger than the city’s mayor, the fire bureau and the region’s most Twitter-savvy local journalists. It posts generally useful, sometimes outlandish, tidbits heard from the police and fire scanner: reports of road closures, house fires, the occasional machete wielder. Now, they'll just hear static on most scanners.The account has been on Twitter since the beginning of the social media site. The public was able to hear 'every command that the SWAT commander was giving to field personnel,' he said.īefore last week, scanner enthusiasts had a myriad of options that would rebroadcast Salem police feeds. Listening to police chatter through scanners and phone applications has become commonplace - and public safety officials know they're being heard.īuchholz said 'hundreds, if not thousands' of listeners tuned in during a 2015 standoff at a Walmart parking lot when a suspect shot at officers and wounded a police dog before retreating into an RV. Salem residents can still listen to police broadcasts - but with delay When city leaders were unsuccessful in securing grants from the federal government or funding through bond measures, they began contributing money to a 'radio replacement fund.'īuchholz said technology advancements over 30 years helped reduce the amount of equipment and infrastructure needed, which helped lower the final cost.

#POLICE SCANNER PORTLAND UPGRADE#

With infrastructure and equipment costs, initial estimates for the upgrade came to about $18 million, Buchholz said.

Police scanner portland