Md. Police Encrypt Radio Transmissions Amid Transparency Concerns

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(TNS) — Anne Arundel County Police will move to encrypt radio transmissions starting in October, a change they say will protect officers and the privacy of witnesses and victims. But the shift is drawing criticism from community members and transparency advocates who say it builds distrust.

Because the Annapolis Police Department and the Anne Arundel County Sheriff’s Office share the county’s radio towers, the public will not be able to hear dispatches from Anne Arundel’s three primary police forces.

“Citizens, a community, have a vested interest in the police operations,” said Jon Conner, a Shady Side resident opposed to the move.

“Sanitized reports that are fifteen minutes, hours to days old, do not have the truth value of real-time communications,” he added.

Anne Arundel is not the only jurisdiction in Maryland to make this leap.

According to RadioReference.com, an online radio frequency database, more than 15 police agencies across the state, from the municipal level to the county level, encrypt all of their operations. Other Maryland agencies, including the Comptroller’s Office and the Maryland National Guard, also encrypt their transmissions, according to the website.

That number continues to rise.

On Tuesday, the Harford County Sheriff’s Office said it had completed its transition to encrypted radio channels. Like Anne Arundel, Harford officials highlighted the need to protect personal information and said in crises, such as the Sept. 6 fatal shooting at Joppatowne High School, officers have “little time for channel switching.”

“It is imperative that we find a solution that ensures both individual rights and investigative integrity are equally safeguarded,” the Harford Sheriff’s Office wrote in a statement.

Conner said he appreciated the need for police to communicate privately in rapidly developing situations, but noted Anne Arundel Police already have the ability to do so. According to RadioReference.com, the county police department currently encrypts transmissions involving investigative and special operations.

Maj. Herbert Hasenpusch, commander of the Anne Arundel Police Bureau of Special Operations and Criminal Investigations, said making a radio switch was not always practical and that encryption would ensure suspects were not tracking police operations in real time.

“With this, our decision to go encrypted on all channels, specifically the main dispatch channels, we can now eliminate that decision-making. So we know that the only people that are going to hear us talking and listening to us talking are … the people that should,” Hasenpusch said.

Some Maryland agencies have been working with encryption for months.

The Baltimore Police Department, citing officer safety and the ability to communicate with other agencies, began encrypting its radio systems last year, though feeds are available after a 15-minute delay. At the time, Baltimore Police said the Justice Department had found their plan was “in alignment” with the transparency goals outlined in a 2017 consent degree addressing unconstitutional policing practices.

With each move to encryption — including in Wicomico County, where a pro-police online outlet was given sole access to police transmissions — transparency and news media advocates have warned about information being concealed from the public.

In an online petition, Conner, who helps operate the Southern Anne Arundel News blotter, said publicly accessible radio transmissions and open airwaves not only keep people informed but help maintain trust between police and their communities.

“Most people in a community are decent people, and will help you out if you’re in trouble,” Conner wrote on Change.org. “But if you block them out and they cant [sic] hear you… they will build a distrust with you.”

Since November 2023, Conner’s petition to prevent encryption has collected 400 signatures.

As part of a 7-year process, Anne Arundel County has worked to migrate its radio communications to what is known as a Project 25 Standard. To make the change, Hasenpusch said Anne Arundel doubled its number of radio towers, increasing the technology’s strength and coverage area.

Jack Martin, the county’s chief information officer, added that the new platform, also known as P25, will allow the police department to communicate with surrounding jurisdictions that have their encryption key, even if their radios are not made by the same manufacturer.

In addition to protecting officers in the field, Anne Arundel police say the introduction of encrypted radio in October also will protect victims, witnesses, suspects and their families from identity theft. In their release Monday about the change, police said citizens may be at risk whenever officers have to transmit personal information about them, such as names, social security numbers, addresses and medical records.

According to a 2023 U.S. Department of Justice report, nearly 24 million Americans, or about 9% of the population aged 16 or older, were victims of identity theft in 2021, with losses totaling $16.4 billion.

“This encryption technology was not previously available, but now affords our agency the opportunity to protect the private information of our community members,” officials wrote Monday. “ The Anne Arundel County Police Department remains committed to both providing information to the community and safeguarding private information that could compromise community members.”

Conner joined founder Justin Byrd at Southern Anne Arundel News nearly 10 years ago and said he keeps police and emergency radio feeds on constantly, sometimes waking up to report an incident if he feels there’s a need.

During a phone call Wednesday, Conner said he has never heard police officers list someone’s social security number during a dispatch and that it would be irresponsible to do so.

“Police hate accountability,” Conner said. “That’s why they’re doing this.”

Police officials said Thursday there has been a concerted effort for decades across the country to limit the exposure of sensitive information, like social security numbers. However, Martin said only a few pieces of data routinely relayed in a dispatch, like a name or address, would be enough to put someone at risk.

Officers “doing their job … could absolutely wreak havoc with someone’s personal life, their job, anything else with just those bits of information,” Martin said. “It’s the combination.”

Even with its new system and towers, police will experience some of the difficulties and limitations inherent with any kind of radio use, Martin said. Weak signals will sometimes happen, but Martin said the county has tested its systems across “the entire county landscape” — seeing how they perform in buildings, farmlands and wooded areas, as well as on the water.

With those tests, Martin said the move to encryption will not affect the quality of a radio transmission.

Anne Arundel Police also said changing to encrypted radio will not affect the department’s ability to notify the public of critical information in a timely, responsible manner.

In the time between a 911 call and officers arriving on a scene, details can be clarified or corrected as the response develops. Department spokesperson Justin Mulcahy said there are several examples of inaccurate information getting published directly from a radio transmission, such as when the Annapolis Mall was evacuated in December over false reports of gunfire.

Mulcahy said while police often learn something is false “very quickly,” with the internet, “it’s too late.”

“We know we have a duty to inform the public when there’s something concerning,” Mulcahy said. “But we also want to be mindful to protect the public from panic.”

In their statement Monday, the department said it was committed to transparency and will continue to post on Facebook, X and Instagram; send notifications through Alert Anne Arundel, an alert system available through the county; and publish daily news releases on significant incidents and department information.