TUCSON, Ariz. — Tucson Police Department is shutting down their police scanner channels Monday morning, encrypting their radio call communications.
This means the public can no longer listen to police scanners and hear TPD calls. Instead, the department has launched a call dashboard as a replacement.
Not all Tucsonans are on board with this new public-facing dashboard. On Facebook, several groups regularly listen to scanners and post their activity to tens of thousands of followers.
“I want to know what’s going on. I’ve been relying on this information and now, you’re just in the dark," said Priscilla Castillo, one of those scanner group moderators.
Whenever she has a spare moment in her day, she's monitoring scanners, passing that information on to the Tucson Community Police Scanner Facebook group.
“I help provide information to the public, to the citizens, to the community members," she said. "Just showing them what’s happening around them and in their neighborhoods.”
Tucson Police know that people like Castillo aren't the only ones monitoring police communication.
“Anybody with a cell phone can download a scanner app and use that information to monitor where law enforcement may be," said Tucson Police Officer and Public Information Officer Frank Magos.
That includes listeners with less innocent intentions.
While Police SWAT teams hand;ling more sensitive or serious information have had encrypted radio communication, until now, TPD patrol officers haven't.
“Our radio transmissions have been monitored by people committing armed robberies and also as recently as some of these street takeovers,” Magos said. "When we’re talking to witnesses, we’re talking to victims, we’re using their home. Addresses, a lot of vital information, personal information that we do not want released to the public.”
Some public scanner group owners agree with the department decision, with one anonymous moderator telling KGUN 9, "honestly, I think everyone is making a bigger deal out of it then it needs to be," they said. "So, we cant listen to police calls. I get its touchy cause crime has seemed to grow alarmingly. But Tucson isn't the only city switching or already encrypted. So we don't get police calls. There's other things, at least the group I moderate for, that we can still cover."
Another was slightly more concerned,
"There are a few pure scanner only groups that are huge assets to the community that will be affected, and it will affect everyone and it's sad to see," they said. "That said, TPD has been transitioning to encrypted radio for some time so that's no surprise. This group has always focused more on the communities eyes and ears to get awareness out so I think all the groups will be forced to lean more into awareness like we have."
Other moderators, like Castillo feel that this new dashboard is a loss, not a replacement, especially since it will be updated every 30 minutes instead of "real-time" like a scanner.
“It raises questions to transparency," she said. "These are public, tax-payer dollars. I believe the tax payers have a right to know ‘where is our money going?'"
Tucson Police Department is the largest law enforcement agency in Southern Arizona. The second largest agency—Pima County Sheriff's Department—has encryption technology but only a few units currently use it.
Cochise Country Sheriff's Office is considering encryption, but a spokesperson says they haven't taken steps in that direction quite yet.
