Unfortunately not. Once I had tuned in they either weren’t talking about it anymore or switched to an encrypted channel. In my mind I’d like to believe it’s the second 'cause some crazy ass bullshit is going down with some witches in Kentucky.
I’m gonna assume you’re not from the US given your lemmy instance. In the US most police radios transmit “in the clear”, i.e., not encrypted. As such, anyone can buy a “police scanner”, or a radio on the same band as police/first-responder frequencies.
In the internet age, there’s websites (and apparently apps now too), that physically monitor these radio channels and stream them online. Hence, a “police scanner app”. Hope that helps.
Having typed all that out, the only thing I ask is to let us know where you’re from, please.
Some time ago some American politician used the phrase unironically. Most speculated they were referring to Latin American countries, but since the politician was a republican and correcting themselves is anathema, we’ll never know.
Anyway, it’s become a favorite of mine to repeat this, tongue in cheek.
Normal stuff is in the clear. When they’re going to do a raid or talk about sensitive stuff they do switch to an encrypted method of communication. Nobody is listening to the scanner and getting warned that their drug lab is about to be hit.
There is an argument to be made that there’s a public security interest to encrypt some traffic, like when they call in someone’s information to run a check on them. And I think that’s a legit concern.
There are some fully encrypted systems (which cops want), and there are some hybrid systems, which are more expensive but would keep transparency in place for the population. Those systems work a variety of ways, such as putting the live comms on a 30-minute delay when there’s a big incident, and fully blocking personal information from citizens.
I think the latter is what they should be using, with very very very specific and clear rules on when they can and cannot encrypt, with regular external audits of the encrypted portion to verify no misuse. But if they won’t go hybrid and submit to inspection, leave it wide open. It’s more important that we have transparency (at this moment in time, due to police behavior), which is a thing I really really hate to say but it’s true…
Yes, although many departments are switching to encrypted radios. It’s a minor political issue, because it fundamentally means less oversight, but also in the event of a major riot or coordinated civil unrest you also might not want to broadcast patrol routed unencrypted.
Looking across the river into Kentucky from Indiana, is like being a bonobo in one zoo enclosure looking at the enclosure next to yours’ full of chimpanzees.
You should be the US’s official cultural and geographical explainer to the dozens of us foreigners that are on the internet these days. I’ve just learnt all I need to know about two places/states in one sentence. To follow the analogy perhaps you should rename the river between the two places “Congo”.
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