Hearing sirens? Finding out why could get harder as Central Indiana police encrypt radios

Wen Gutreuter considers herself a safety-conscious resident who likes to stay abreast of news in her community.

The 50-year-old mother of three said the fastest and most useful information she gets comes from police and fire scanners. Not directly, but Gutreuter, like thousands of other residents in Central Indiana, receives social media alerts from a website that monitors emergency calls about not just crime, but weather-related incidents like downed power lines and flooded roads.

"It is incredibly useful in getting me notifications about traffic accidents and other information important to me so I can make a decision where to go, what to avoid," said Gutreuter, of Noblesville.

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For her, the scanner updates are an essential public amenity in a fast-information age.

But beginning in July, Hamilton County will block the public and media from tuning into the police radio traffic, citing officer safety and privacy of victims as primary concerns. Hendricks County has put publicly released police and fire calls on a 15-minute delay.

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department is considering encrypting the communications, as well, though no details have been provided for how and when that might happen.

The blackouts follow a national trend. Louisville, Denver and Chicago are among cities that have or are planning to encrypt police communications. Officials said the prevalence of scanner apps makes it easy for criminals to monitor police movements or protestors to gauge police strategy in volatile situations. They also said public reporting immediately on often unconfirmed police communications can spread dangerous speculation and inaccurate information.

People who run those sites and their users argue the claims of nefarious use are exaggerated and that the benefits to the public far outweigh the harm. And the move has some residents and neighborhood crime watch groups concerned that an essential alert system is being taken away. Others are worried the move gives police license to operate in secrecy.

Indianapolis' mayoral candidates are weighing in the possible move, as well. One Democrat has made opposition to it part of her crime platform and five others from both parties say they are against a full-scale encryption policy.

Impacts on crime watch, prevention efforts

Rev. Charles Harrison, whose Ten Point Coalition in Indianapolis has been responding to shooting scenes for 15 years to help keep peace in their immediate aftermath, said encryption would “make it impossible for us to do our job.”

“I am very suspicious,” he said. “How are we supposed to know what they are doing? During a time of great mistrust and tension between law enforcement and communities of color restricting access to police scanners will make it seem like the police are hiding their activities from the public. The public has a right to know what's happening in the city in real-time.”

The change comes as technology has conditioned the public to expect real-time information at its fingertips through a plethora of social media platforms. Several crime watch groups use the Citizens app, which transmits scanner communications and issues alerts. Some crime watches post the alerts on their Facebook pages or Nextdoor app to inform members. They say it puts residents on the lookout when a crime has just been committed.

“We are not getting in the way of police,” said Tabitha Barnett, who heads the Twin Aire crime watch on the southeast side. “This helps them when they ask us if we ‘see something to say something’.”

Residents assert the scanners prevent speculation rather than spread it and note that police routinely encrypt sensitive information — for example, during a SWAT operation — and don't need to shut down the whole system. With the prevalence of mass shootings in public places or catastrophic natural disasters, the scanners are more useful than ever as a tool that can save lives, they say.

"Technology is evolving everywhere and this is going backward,” said Ang Malone, who has headed the Decatur Township Neighborhood Crime Watch for seven years. “We use whatever tools are available and scanner apps have been all positive for us in getting real-time information. (Police) are public servants who are supposed to look out for all of us and shouldn’t take this away.”

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The law and privacy concerns

Mike Hubbs, 911 director for Hamilton County, said security and privacy are more important than providing openness to the public or media.

“We don’t want to tie the hands of law enforcement when officers are getting assaulted and attacked across the country,” said Hubbs, who headed Marion County’s 911 system for eight years. "There are certain things we don’t want you to know, certain things have to be covert.”

Hubbs said a law passed by the Indiana legislature in 2022 gave his agency no choice. Senate Enrolled Act 117 prohibits police from transmitting personal information about juvenile crime victims or social security numbers over the emergency radio unless it is encrypted.

"I can't violate the code unless it gets amended," Hubbs said.

But Sen. Kyle Walker, who co-authored the bill, said shutting down public monitoring was never the point of the law. "There was no anticipation that this would be used to go to full encryption. Most police have the ability for non-encryption and encryption for certain information, and they can use cellphones," Walker said.

Unreliable information, or early warning tool? Depends.

Police say scanner information is preliminary and inherently unreliable, which can lead to wild speculation or panic during emergencies, a view shared by some outside experts.

“When it comes to operational security and privacy there are good reasons why citizens who listen do not need to,” said Adam Scott Wandt, an assistant professor of public policy at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City who specializes in technology. “It doesn’t provide transparency or work as a neighborhood watchdog. It increases paranoia about crime."

Instead, Wandt said with police departments increasingly using social media to keep the public informed, it's better to await official confirmation of incidences.

He does favor the media retaining access to scanner information so they can get to news stories fast and report them. "The media provides a very legitimate service," he said.

Lindsay Blanton, chief executive officer at Broadcastify, one of the major scanner apps, said claims of widespread criminal monitoring of scanners are overblown.

“I’m sure it’s happened before but in every case that law enforcement cites officer safety, they’ve never told us or the community specific instances where listening to online scanner feeds has constituted an officer safety issue,” he told IndyStar in an email.

He said apps like his are delayed as much as two minutes, anyway, so they wouldn’t be of much use to criminals. Conversely, he asserted, the public need and benefit has been proven.

“I’ve, in the past, seen tons of specific instances, especially with wildfires and active shooter situations, where the feeds provided timely real-time information to the communities,” Blanton wrote, citing the recent shooting on the campus of Michigan State University.

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The Noblesville Scanner Facebook page has been posting live police and fire communications updates since 2020 and now has 22,000 subscribers, including police officers and city council members. The site's moderators says they are able to quickly correct faulty speculation about local police activity that spreads rapidly on social media sites.

Last summer, spectators fled a Wiz Khalifa concert at Ruoff Music Center when they thought they heard gunshots. Noblesville Scanner within minutes clarified that no shots were fired.

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Gutreuter has followed the Noblesville Scanner since its inception.

“To take it away would be a travesty and would stir up more fear and misinformation,” she said. “We can’t always turn on the news to find out what is going on. Especially if it isn’t big enough to make the news but is important to us in Hamilton County.”

That local monitoring is why Steve Terry who has been involved in crime watches for 40 years, carries a police scanner with him when he makes neighborhood patrols in Christian Park on the east side of Indianapolis. It's even helped him lead police to the capture of three fleeing suspects right after they committed crimes, he said.

Dave Varie, who heads the Binford Redevelopment & Growth crime watch, said he doesn't rely on a scanner and instead will confirm with an Indianapolis North District community liaison officer information passed to him by residents about crimes or suspicious activity before sending out information at large.

The group's website has links to the department's crime incident map, and portals to report crimes and crime data.

“I really depend on neighbors and don’t like putting out anything until it is confirmed,” Varie said.

Where candidates for Indianapolis mayor stand on the issue

The encryption trend has received scant attention outside of people who monitor police for crime reporting, but it could become a talking point in the Indianapolis mayoral race.

Democratic candidate Robin Shackelford has included her opposition to the encryption plan in her public safety platform, calling it "a direct violation of the public’s right to know what is going on in the community" that "decreases transparency about what police are doing."

Shackleford, a state representative, voted for the bill in the legislature to encrypt personal information because she said the law's focus was narrow and wasn't intended to give silence all radio traffic.

"This is a completely separate issue because that law is meant to guard against identity theft and to protect minors," she said in an email to IndyStar. "The fact that some police departments are using that law as the reason they must encrypt everything is a miscarriage of justice."

Most of the other candidates also said they didn't favor blanket encryption.

Democrats Bob Kern and Clifford Marsiglio and Republican John Couch said they are against any restrictions, citing transparency. Republican Abdul-Hakeem Shabazz said he might favor a compromise, such as a 15-minute delay. Democrat James Jackson said he'd be against a media black-out but supported a 15-minute delay for the public.

Democrat Larry Vaughn said he supported encryption. Republican Jefferson Shreve could not be reached for comment.

Hogsett's office declined to give the mayor's position on encrypting radios, as did his campaign office.

Call IndyStar reporter John Tuohy at (317) 444-6418. Follow on Twitter and Facebook.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indianapolis considers encrypting police feeds. Others already have