Minneapolis to encrypt police radio communication in May

MINNEAPOLIS — Minneapolis will cease public broadcasts of its police radio communications starting in May and shift to online dashboards for the public to track emergency incident responses.

In a news release, city officials said the move to encrypt police radio communications is necessary to comply with state and federal data privacy laws. 

Police radio communications can sometimes include details about identities, locations and police tactics that have been available to the public through police radio scanners, as well as online scanner tracking apps and websites. 

“The dramatic rise in the use of social media and scanner apps to track first responders jeopardizes emergency response operations and can lead to the spread of incomplete, inaccurate or unsubstantiated information,” city officials said in a news release Monday. 

“This can cause safety concerns for first responders and the public. Directives from the state and federal governments have long required agencies to protect personally identifiable information such as driver’s license numbers and criminal backgrounds. Encrypting communication helps ensure City compliance while providing additional safety for emergency responders and community members.”

In place of live police communications available to the public, the city said its new online 911 Emergency Incidents Dashboard will be updated every 30 minutes and list 911 calls from the past 12 hours, with incidents featured on a map and categorized by type of call and responding agency. Incidents older than 12 hours will be included on a separate dashboard of archived incidents.

However, critics argue the shift from real-time public communications to a delayed online dashboard reduces transparency surrounding law enforcement.

“They’ve taken a tool away from the public to be able to monitor their actions and activities,” civil rights lawyer and activist Nekima Levy Armstrong said. “Minneapolis Police nor the city can point to anything specific that has happened that has caused them to make this decision in terms of public interference.”

“The press’s job is to be a watchdog,” said Leita Walker, a free speech lawyer who works with local media organizations, including KARE 11. 

“Being able to be at a crime scene as an investigation is unfolding, while witnesses are still present, and to be able to talk to those people and to get an unvarnished story from the people who are there, as opposed to just a sterile press release that has been finessed by a public information officer, is very important to be able to tell the truth to public about what happened,” Walker said. 

Walker added that encryption also makes it more difficult for the press to provide urgent safety information to the public in a timely manner.

University of Saint Thomas criminal law professor Rachel Moran says police departments across the country are deciding to encrypt their radios due to privacy concerns and she suspects many more departments will soon join this trend.

“This is somewhat of a close call in terms of what is the best way to protect public safety,” Professor Moran said.

“Some of the information that comes across a police scanner is information that is traditionally protected, like the potential names of alleged victims and home addresses. However, there are people who have very justified concerns about Minneapolis Police Department behavior, and if they believe being able to listen to scanner traffic allows them to keep an eye on what the police are doing then they are going to be upset,” said Moran. 

The city said the online dashboard is now live, and it will begin testing encrypted police service over the final weeks of April before shifting to fully encrypted communications on May 1.

Several other local law enforcement agencies have already shifted to encrypted radio communications, including sheriff’s departments in Hennepin, Carver, Dakota and Scott counties.