NYPD faces backlash as it prepares to encrypt radio communications | New York | The Guardian
NYPD faces backlash as it prepares to encrypt radio communications | New York | The Guardian
Critics say encryption is an ‘attack on transparency’, and that radio monitoring is one of the few ways to keep track of the police
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So what do they use to do that? Or is it that they can't because they don't have a secure channel?
Cell phones are a common option.
Jesus. I can't believe they haven't encrypted sooner. "We have a situation here, wait let me call you."
Why would the situation need to be kept private? “We have a jumper at this and this street”, “shots fired on scene”, “I ate a burrito.”
I’m honestly curious, what vitally secret info do you think needs to be communicated over radio? They aren’t for conversations.
To keep the private info of the people involved actually private. License plates, descriptions, home addresses, personally identifiable info. It seems mad that all of that is just broadcasted out to everyone. Probably wouldn't even be legal where I live because of privacy concerns.
License plates are not private, they literally sit out in public all day. Descriptions are, again, not private. Even your license info is public.
Not to mention, police reports are info that can be requested with a FOIA request. So all that info is public anyway, even if it was originally private.
Would you be willing to share your license plate number here?
License plate, connected to description and description of the situation, medical stuff etc. would obviously be something I wouldn't want broadcasted to just anyone. I don't know how Americans are comfortable with that.
Or well, probably aren't since they're finally getting around to encrypting that stuff. It's wild that it wasn't done before.
Here? No. I keep my online and personal lives separate. That would be directly tying what are essentially two different people together.
Are you willing to put your license plate on a piece of paper and display it on your house? What about your address on your car? Your name on your car, house, phone number?
All this info is already there. You can find it all yourself, or pay like $15 to have a company do it for you, and you’ll get a boatload more. Employer history, address history, vehicle history, current phone number, current address, and more.
I guarantee this info is all readily available in other countries as well, though I admit the legality of general public getting their hands on it may be in question.
I wouldn't want any of my info being broadcasted to public without my specific approval. Especially connected to other info like a specific situations with police, medical info, whatever might come up. Imagine being a victim and on top of the shittyness of that having all your info just broadcasted out like that.
You said license plates were public info you were fine with being broadcasted in public. Not sure why you're hesitating now.
I'm being facetious. Of course I know. Nobody wants that shit being broadcasted out without their approval. Imagine if I just shared your address or license plate. The audience here is undoubtedly smaller than what you'd get with NYC police radio, but still.
Why would a victims information be broadcast over the radio? And why would it matter? “Omg someone on the other side of town is going to know I got stabbed I’m so embarrassed!”
It’s not like they are sitting there over the radio giving a deep dive on the person.
You said license plates were public info you were fine with being broadcasted in public. Not sure why you're hesitating now.
That’s like saying “if we were talking face to face you’d be comfortable introducing yourself by name, why are you hesitating now?”
The audience here is gigantic. This is a public website, accessible without credentials, stored in perpetuity on any number of websites. And this is a username which has received death threats, among other threats.
On the other hand, anyone who knows my real name can just look up my address, assuming they know any number of secondary pieces of info. Literally saying “Hi I’m Kairu Byte from Beverly Hills” would likely be enough info to get my exact address. Or, just punch my license plate into a website.
I get that you feel like that info is private in the real world, but it really isn’t. Not in the slightest.
It can cause further harm to the victim for their information to be broadcasted out. A lot of victims wouldn't want their information and that of the situation to be shared, obviously. And it would be broadcasted because police report what they're doing over the radio, ask for confirmation or checkups and all that. Here it wouldn't matter so much because of encryption, with unecrypted traffic that sort of normal radio traffic would be obviously problematic.
That’s like saying “if we were talking face to face you’d be comfortable introducing yourself by name, why are you hesitating now?”
No, the radio traffic is unencrypted and broadcasted out to everyone who wants to listen. That's the whole problem.
The radio traffic is broadcasted unencrypted to everyone willing to listen, indiscriminately. It's not one to one. And people share that online too. I know I've listened to a few streams. It's very much like writing shit online. Someone just needs to pick the right website and you're set.
It's not like talking face to face, it's yelling across a busy market place, with some people recording and broadcasting everything people are yelling.
I mean... Let's just take your example of "we have a jumper at x and y street". Is it really a good idea to have everyone know that? Do we want "journalists" to drive over their and take pictures of people in crisis (possibly worsening it).
Or let's imagine a car chase, do we really want criminals to know that a spikestrip is set up 2 streets ahead?
Do we want information like warrant and licence checks to be held over unencrypted radio transmitions. Allowing everyone who wants to to listen in and learn about people's criminal histories?
Just to add, I am aware that the whole idea of privacy isn't really a thing in the US, the names and mugshots of arrested people are literally made public in some (all?) states, so you probably don't care about the last point, but the rest still stand, and in lots of countries everyone's privacy is considered a right, including that of (suspected) criminals.
Is it really a good idea to have everyone know that?
It really doesn’t hurt.
Do we want "journalists" to drive over their and take pictures of people in crisis (possibly worsening it).
How is a journalist any different than a dozen randos posting it to TikTok? At least the journalist would be more likely to report facts instead of “#justdoit”.
Or let's imagine a car chase, do we really want criminals to know that a spikestrip is set up 2 streets ahead?
his isn’t usually a concern. Spike strips are set up pretty much only when the criminal has no other option. They aren’t done in a residential area where there are many side streets and turns, because it’s like trying to herd cats.
Most of the time in a chase, it’s info the criminal is already going to know. Where they are, what they are doing, etc. the cops don’t normally detail their plans on the radio, just communicate info.
Do we want information like warrant and licence checks to be held over unencrypted radio transmitions. Allowing everyone who wants to to listen in and learn about people's criminal histories?
This info is already public. You can literally just look it up on government sites. You can do that in many different countries, in fact. And I’d say that’s a good thing, actually. Why should we keep criminal activity private? How do we keep both citizens and government accountable if we aren’t open about what was done and the punishment received. Otherwise you can have people just disappear from the street into a jail cell, and the public have no way of ever knowing.
Communicate private health information? A lot of times they still use fax machines. Information can also be stored in a secured database where access is recorded and monitored. If needed, they can always pick up the phone and talk directly with a person if you need something. HIPAA is fairly specific about this.
An encrypted two-way radio, where only the two parties requiring the information would be on the call, that might be fine as long as you're careful to make sure someone standing nearby can't overhear. But that's not what NYC is building.