Ambulance organizations are worried that the pending encryption of police radio transmissions in Lancaster County will compromise the safety of medics racing to dangerous calls, LNP reported last Wednesday. Emergency medical service leaders asked the county commissioners to revise their June approval of police radio encryption to allow their crews to listen to police calls. The commissioners have not made a decision on the request.
Encryption is a bad idea. Words like transparency and accountability should mean something. Their significance diminishes every time we erect another barrier between government and the public.
We want our police officers to be as safe as they can possibly be. We also believe in the importance of public access to information. These values are not mutually exclusive.
Practically speaking, theres no evidence that encrypting police transmissions will make policing safer or easier. Part of the rationale for encryption is to prevent an ambush or to keep the media from reaching a crime scene before law enforcement, which, by the way, is very rare.
We know police officers would rather not have to deal with media at a crime scene. But the media has a job to do. Weather events, fires, gas leaks the media monitors police transmissions to help keep the public informed. Thats the medias job. Weve asked for proof that media or public access to police transmissions has ever compromised a crime scene or an investigation, or violated the privacy of a victim. Were still waiting.
Weve also asked the county commissioners to reconsider. Now, were not alone.
As LNPs Jeff Hawkes reported, medics need to hear what the first officers on the scene are saying to each other and dispatchers about the nature of a crash, shooting or other emergency requiring an ambulance. They can start to prepare before they arrive if they have more information. Is the crime scene secure? Are flood waters too deep? Are there downed wires?
These are legitimate concerns and questions. And how were the EMS officials received when they spoke up at a meeting with the commissioners last week? Not well.
Police departments, I dont think, would ever come in here and ask you to put some regulation on the fire departments, said Chief Kevin McCarthy of East Earl Township, representing a county police chiefs group. We actually thought the matter was finished.
Its not. Nor should it be. And McCarthys comment misses the point by a wide margin.
The entities that rely on police transmissions should be working together to keep the public safe and informed. Radio transmissions help the media communicate to the public. EMTs use the information to get to people who need help. This is a debate about openness in government and access to information. Once it degenerates into an argument over stepping on toes or whos dictating policy to whom, were in real trouble.
As we wrote when the decision to encrypt was announced, if a lack of public trust and faith in government institutions is a real problem, this law only serves to exacerbate mistrust.
And now you have a group of first responders saying it makes no practical sense either and will make their jobs more difficult.
To lose that ability to communicate or at least monitor (police transmissions) is a real danger to people in EMS, Dr. Michael Reihart, the medical director of a regional emergency health services federation, told LNP.
This should be more than enough for the commissioners to reconsider.
It should be, but apparently, it isnt.
Commissioners Chairman Dennis Stuckey, after hearing from EMS officials, said that hes not inclined to change anything.
Darrell Fisher, president of the Lancaster County EMS Council, told LNP that he will continue to push this issue, and we commend him for doing so.
Its pretty clear that the commissioners and everyone else who favors encryption want Reihart and Fisher to lose interest and go away. We hope they dont.
Commissioner Craig Lehman may represent the last hope for preserving transparency and public accessibility. Lehman opposed blocking media access to police radio, and told LNP that hes sensitive to the medics request and worries about other unintended consequences of encryption that could put police at risk.
We hope the police who requested encryption and the commissioners who voted for it will reopen this discussion. We still believe a compromise can be reached. As LNP Executive Editor Barbara Hough Roda wrote in July, we seek a compromise that will allow law enforcement to do its work, and enable those of us in the news media to do ours.
That doesnt seem like too much to ask. And its the least the public has a right to expect.
Go here to read the rest:
Additional proof that Lancaster County Commissioners should reconsider encrypting police transmissions – LancasterOnline
- Which Types of Encryption are Most Secure? - February 7th, 2019
- JSON Object Signing and Encryption (JOSE) - February 4th, 2019
- What Is Encryption, and How Does It Work? - January 26th, 2019
- The Pitfalls of Facebook Merging Messenger, Instagram, and ... - January 26th, 2019
- Encryption: Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Lead to Breaches - January 14th, 2019
- Encryption | Information Technology Services - December 31st, 2018
- Encryption - Investopedia - December 16th, 2018
- How to Protect Data at Rest with Amazon EC2 Instance Store ... - December 9th, 2018
- Next Generation Encryption - blogs.cisco.com - December 4th, 2018
- 3 Different Data Encryption Methods - DataShield blog - November 22nd, 2018
- Security and encryption | Documentation | Turtl - November 18th, 2018
- Encryption | General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) - November 16th, 2018
- Using Encryption and Authentication Correctly (for PHP ... - November 13th, 2018
- Encryption | SANS Security Awareness - November 9th, 2018
- Types of Encryption | Office of Information Technology - November 5th, 2018
- Use Your own Encryption Keys with S3s Server-Side ... - October 29th, 2018
- What is Tokenization vs Encryption - Benefits & Uses Cases ... - October 12th, 2018
- Device Encryption | it.ucsf.edu - October 12th, 2018
- 5 Common Encryption Algorithms and the Unbreakables of the Future - September 15th, 2018
- Top 5 best encryption software tools of 2018 | TechRadar - August 26th, 2018
- New EBS Encryption for Additional Data Protection | AWS ... - August 22nd, 2018
- Best Encryption Software 2018 - Encrypt Files on Windows PCs - August 20th, 2018
- Download BestCrypt Volume Encryption 3.78.05 / 4.01.09 Beta - July 26th, 2018
- End-to-end encryption - Wikipedia - July 24th, 2018
- Download Symantec Encryption Desktop 10.4.0 Build 1100 - July 15th, 2018
- HTTPS - Wikipedia - July 10th, 2018
- AES encryption - June 20th, 2018
- Encrypt email messages - Outlook - June 20th, 2018
- Download Sophos Free Encryption 2.40.1.11 - softpedia.com - June 19th, 2018
- Does Skype use encryption? | Skype Support - June 16th, 2018
- Encryption- Computer & Information Security - Information ... - May 25th, 2018
- Enable BitLocker on USB Flash Drives to Protect Data - May 25th, 2018
- Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) - msdn.microsoft.com - April 12th, 2018
- Encryption Software Market - Global Forecast to 2022 - March 24th, 2018
- What AES Encryption Is And How It's Used To Secure File Transfers - March 24th, 2018
- Encryption vs. Cryptography - What is the Difference? - March 24th, 2018
- Energy-efficient encryption for the internet of things | MIT News - February 16th, 2018
- The Best Encryption Software - TopTenReviews - February 16th, 2018
- File-Based Encryption | Android Open Source Project - February 7th, 2018
- Beyond Encryption | Secure Enterprise email using existing ... - February 1st, 2018
- Azure Search enterprise security: Data encryption and user ... - January 26th, 2018
- Skype finally getting end-to-end encryption | Ars Technica - January 13th, 2018
- FBI chief says phone encryption is a 'major public safety issue' - January 13th, 2018
- Encryption and Export Administration Regulations (EAR) - December 27th, 2017
- Key (cryptography) - Wikipedia - December 21st, 2017
- security - Fundamental difference between Hashing and ... - December 15th, 2017
- What Is Encryption? | Surveillance Self-Defense - December 4th, 2017
- Comodo Disk Encryption Download - softpedia.com - December 1st, 2017
- Encryption - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - November 24th, 2017
- BitLocker Drive Encryption Overview - technet.microsoft.com - November 23rd, 2017
- The Encrypting File System - technet.microsoft.com - November 18th, 2017
- FBI cant break the encryption on Texas shooters smartphone - November 13th, 2017
- DOJ: Strong encryption that we dont have access to is ... - November 13th, 2017
- DOJ Fires Up New War With Apple Over Encryption - November 12th, 2017
- Security Awareness - Encryption | Office of Information ... - October 15th, 2017
- Data Encryption and Decryption (Windows) - October 14th, 2017
- Trumps DOJ tries to rebrand weakened encryption as responsible ... - October 11th, 2017
- How to encrypt (almost) anything | PCWorld - September 22nd, 2017
- Private Internet Access | VPN Encryption - September 21st, 2017
- Encryption Substitutes | Privacy | Encryption - September 21st, 2017
- Data Encryption: Hardware & Software Security: Online ... - September 21st, 2017
- How To Enable BitLocker Drive Encryption In Windows 10? - September 21st, 2017
- PGP Encryption Tool - iGolder - September 21st, 2017
- encryption - How to encrypt String in Java - Stack Overflow - September 21st, 2017
- Encryption Software Market, Size, Trends and Forecast 2020 - September 21st, 2017
- Encryption Definition - Tech Terms - September 20th, 2017
- Why You Should Be Encrypting Your Devices and How to Easily Do It - Gizmodo - September 6th, 2017
- Black Hats, White Hats, and Hard Hats The Need for Encryption in Mining and Resources - Australian Mining - September 6th, 2017
- How can enterprises secure encrypted traffic from cloud applications? - TechTarget - September 6th, 2017
- Encryption Explained - Arizona Daily Wildcat - September 6th, 2017
- News in brief: Call to link encryption to ID; Facebook maps everyone ... - Naked Security - September 2nd, 2017
- 'Independent' gov law reviewer wants users preemptively identified before they're 'allowed' to use encryption - The Register - September 2nd, 2017
- High-Dimensional Quantum Encryption Performed in Real-World ... - Futurism - September 2nd, 2017
- It's Time to Replace Your Encryption-Key Spreadsheet - Data Center Knowledge - September 2nd, 2017
- Legislation to limit smartphone encryption 'may be necessary,' deputy AG Rosenstein says - Washington Times - August 31st, 2017
- Cloud Encryption Market by Component, Service Model, Organization Size, Vertical And Region - Global Forecast to ... - Markets Insider - August 31st, 2017
- Cipher Suites: Ciphers, Algorithms and Negotiating Security Settings - Hashed Out by The SSL Store (registration) (blog) - August 31st, 2017
- Encryption in Office 365 - Office 365 - August 29th, 2017
- Need-to-Know Only: Use Encryption to Make Data Meaningless to ... - Security Intelligence (blog) - August 29th, 2017
- Four strategies to prevent data encryption from hijacking your network - Digital News Asia - August 29th, 2017
Recent Comments