A chat board called “Illinois Radio Discussion Forum” on RadioReference.com is reporting,
RadioReference.com is the source of this story.
“As of today, 1/16/13 at 1400 hrs the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office will initiate encryption upon their radio communications.”
Guess the public will no longer be able to listen in.
I have a life, so this is no biggie to me
Everything is a secret .
Encryption? Or maybe just to a different, higher frequency, requiring a more expensive scanner? Who knows the new frequency? Maybe a FOIA request will be needed…
Nope, not unless your a member of the network can you listen or monitor the traffic. That is the way it should be!!!!
I am not a conspiracy theorist by any means but this may come back to haunt all of us at some point…
It might keep people like Gus from sticking his nose in everything that goes on and making his assumptions without knowing the whole story.
PJ nailed it. It makes it a ton easier to “be GUS”
Who could possibly care about what the police are responding to?
Are you going to go there and help?
Totally NONE of OUR Business.
Let them do their job; and who the H_LL are we, or anyone else, to question how and what they do?
That’s for a judge and jury to decide, isn’t it?
@Richard- I’d argue that the general public has as much right to listen to police scanner activity as we have to sit at the county courthouse’s switchboard, put on a headset and listen in to the phone calls.
In other words, not much.
TO: A(ndy)Z(inke)Supporter: The business of the police is the business of the public.
You forget who employs whom.
They are public servants, not secret agents.
Should we “Let them do their job”?
Should we question “how and what they do”? “That’s for a judge and jury to decide, isn’t it?”
Isn’t this what is costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in settlements and outside legal defense fees, (no) thanks to the actions of certain deputies of the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department, as led by Sheriff Nygren and Undersheriff Zinke?
Sirs: For decades, Citizens have lawfully monitored Police Frequencies so as to know if there is illegal activity in their area which might pose an imminent threat.
The Federal Communications Act clearly States that the airwaves belong to the Public.
Lawful Citizens have no intention of interfering with the duties of law enforcement Officers within Mc Henry County.
But I submit, it would be helpful, not just to us, but to Law Enforcement, if we can remain informed in real time.
This is nothing new.
Radio tansmissions going back to the 60’s had the ability to be encrypted.
Federal agencies have used encryped radios have for many years.
When th MCSO went to the Starcom type 800 trunked system is is basically a cellular backbone.
The new sytsem is digital and this is just the final phase of the transition.
Too bad for the scanner heads.
Very few people invested in the type of scanner required to listen to the trunked radio.
There are websites you could listen to live streamed transmissons but it also included Dist 2 ISP and some other agencies.
Truth be told,most JUICEY stuff goes over the in car computer.
Do you remember the CB radios of the 60,70and early 80s and how everyone including the police knew what was going on?