The Montgomery County Department of Police is “aggressively” moving forward with plans to fully encrypt its radio transmissions, Assistant Chief of Police Darren Francke told Bethesda Today on Tuesday.
As of mid-June, about 95% of portable radios carried by county officers and half of the department’s vehicles have been reprogrammed to encrypt transmissions, according to Francke.
In addition, the department’s dispatch channels also have been encrypted for its Third District, which covers Silver Spring; Fourth District, which covers the Wheaton area; and Sixth District, which covers Gaithersburg and Montgomery Village, according to Francke. The department’s dispatch channels for the First District (Rockville), Second District (Bethesda) and Fifth District (Germantown) remain unencrypted.
“We don’t have a timeline to the complete encryption, but what you should be hearing now is a gradual decrease in our radios, in the different districts of our dispatching operations,” Francke said.
The move to fully encrypt the transmissions stems from the department’s worries about the public transmission of sensitive information concerning police operations and the people involved. In recent years, law enforcement agencies around the country, including the New York police department, have moved to encrypt their emergency communications and radio channels despite critics saying that doing so will impact transparency. The Baltimore Police Department encrypted its channels in 2023, but made them available to the public with a 15-minute delay.
Some also think the move toward radio encryption will have a negative impact on local news.
Jerry Zremski, a professor in the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, told Bethesda Today on Tuesday that encryption will make it difficult for reporters to respond to stories involving public safety and the police.
“In every newsroom I’ve ever been in there has been a police scanner radio that people are listening to. It’s just going to make the job of local reporters more difficult,” Zremski said.
Radio encryption also was called out by the Radio Television Digital News Association as its “biggest issue” of 2023.
“These communications provide individuals and newsrooms with essential updates on issues happening in their communities such as violent crime, hazardous conditions or officer-involved shootings,” the Washington, D.C.-based organization said in a 2023 statement. “The move to encrypt police scanner communications puts the public – and the newsrooms that serve them by seeking and reporting the truth – at risk.”
The Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service (MCFRS) does not plan to encrypt its radio transmissions, spokesperson Pete Piringer told Bethesda Today in April.
Council work session on encryption efforts
On July 7, the County Council’s Public Safety Committee will hear a briefing from county and police officials on the department’s radio encryption efforts. A council staff report for the meeting, scheduled from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., is not yet available.
Earl Stoddard, the county’s assistant chief administration officer, told Bethesda Today that county officials were interested to hear feedback from councilmembers about the police department’s encryption efforts.
“We’re just trying to figure out what the right method to do that is, that serves the interests of the media but also serves the interests of not having information be released that could jeopardize officer safety or … an ongoing investigation,” Stoddard said.
During the briefing, Francke said he and other officials will discuss the department’s progress toward encryption, alternate methods of broadcasting radio transmissions and the challenges of those methods, and the department’s “history of transparency.”
Francke said the department has been a “leader in transparency” in its public communications.
“It’s not based on radio transmissions,” Francke said. “It’s based on the information that we get out to our community that’s relevant to public safety and explains situations that have happened, good and bad, time and time again.”
Sensitive information
When asked by Bethesda Today about allowing media-only access or providing a delayed release of police radio encryptions, Francke said the department has researched the options but is moving forward with full encryption of its radios.
“There is a price tag that comes with doing a delayed dispatch because you have to buy equipment for each channel,” Francke said. He did not share what that cost would be or how much it has cost to encrypt.
Francke noted the department has spoken with other jurisdictions about different radio encryption methods. However, he said it appears other jurisdictions are moving away from unencrypted radio transmissions and delays, citing the “stress on the system” and cost.
Without full encryption, Francke says personal and identifiable information will still be dispatched and shared on radio waves.
“That’s one of the primary drivers of this change,” Francke said. “People’s information about their health, information about their date of birth, their address, about their work, about their vehicle, all of that information right now … [is] partially available from radios that aren’t encrypted.”
Other information that may be provided in police radio transmissions includes phone numbers, license plate numbers and medical history.
Francke also noted that criminals listening in on police radio transmissions is a “common practice” that is detrimental to public and officer safety. He did not provide a specific example of such a case. However, Stoddard told Bethesda Today that about two weeks ago, after county officers made arrests for a robbery in the White Oak area, a witness told police that the suspects had been listening to police radio transmissions to try and evade their arrest.
Francke also said he believes encryption may help deter so-called swatting calls. These types of calls involve a person calling emergency services and falsely reporting a serious crime in an effort to garner a large law enforcement or police SWAT response.
“People can listen to the mayhem they cause … these are very dangerous situations,” Francke said.
With such calls, people can call, “saying, ‘I’m at such and such location, I’ve killed someone, I have a gun.’ And police have to respond. Next thing you know, we’re waking up people in the middle of the night,” he added. “So, it’s … not good for the community that that information is out there.”
