Berkeley council votes to allow police scanner encryption

Berkeley council votes to allow police scanner encryption

Briefly

"Berkeley Police Chief Jennifer Louis said the change was necessary to align with state and federal privacy requirements, protect officers when on duty and prevent potential suspects from evading arrest. Having considered alternatives, Louis said switching between encrypted and unencrypted channels would be challenging given a dispatch staffing shortage and delaying the feed or creating a key or workaround for media would not solve the issue of protecting sensitive information, as required by a 2020 memo from former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra."

"That vote came after more than two dozen public speakers implored the council to outright deny the request or further explore the issue with greater community input. Opponents of full encryption, including pedestrian and bike advocates and independent police oversight organizations, shared concerns that an important tool for monitoring police activity and remaining informed during emergencies would be stripped from the public, greatly harming police transparency."

"Encyption addresses these concerns that have emerged and become more prevalent recently. We do understand that there is a level of access that's going to be lost by going to encryption and we want to continue to provide as much information as we can as quickly as we can, that's accurate," Louis said during the meeting. Councilmembers voted 8-1 to permit full radio encryption, with Councilmember Cecilia Lunaparra the lone dissent."