EVANSVILLE — After a man allegedly ambushed and killed Evansville firefighter Robert F. Doerr II in 2019, investigators said he monitored police radio chatter using a smartphone app while he made his getaway.

Such a tactic illustrates part of the rationale that law enforcement agencies around the country have used to cloak their radio transmissions in encryption, blocking the public’s access in an effort to prevent would-be criminals from getting the drop on police activity.

J.D. Winkler, the deputy chief of the Owensboro, Kentucky, police department, cited that reason and others earlier this year when the Owensboro Police Department and other local first responders took scanner traffic encrypted there.

As more cities consider shifting course on the decades-old practice of keeping police, fire and dispatch radio traffic open to all in real time, the Courier & Press spoke to Evansville’s law enforcement community about whether such a change could happen at the local level.

“There’s certainly public safety benefits to residents having access to live police radio traffic,” Vanderburgh County Sheriff Noah Robinson said. “It has benefits, but one of the severe drawbacks is it’s kind of hard for us to respond and have the edge, because we’re always worried the bad guy knows we’re coming.

“We’ve had that happen on many occasions.”

More: Nothing coming from your scanner? Here’s why.

The radio system employed by the sheriff’s office, the Evansville Police Department and the fire department is mostly open to the public. Former EPD Chief Billy Bolin, who now holds the position of chief in nearby Henderson, Kentucky, said the EPD does have encrypted channels it can use to discuss sensitive incidents.

But most channels are open, and local watchdog groups publish police and dispatchers’ radioed conversations in real-time. A 24/7 live stream lets anyone with a phone or computer keep tabs on what’s happening.

Robinson said that local law enforcement has discussed whether that could change, but talks were brief and no conclusions were drawn.

“Only the most preliminary of conversations have happened,” Robinson said. “One thing we have discussed was the potential of going encrypted and then simply putting (radio traffic) on a delay. In other words, the information is minutes behind.”

But for now, such a move is only a possibility, and Robinson said there are no current plans to encrypt law enforcement’s primary radio channels in Evansville.

Carrie James, director of Evansville-Vanderburgh Central Dispatch, echoed the sheriff’s comments.

“Although there has been some discussion, no changes regarding encryption or delaying broadcasting have been made,” she said via email.

Evansville police chief Phil Smith didn’t respond to a call seeking comment. Sgt. Nick Winsett, meanwhile, told the Courier & Press via text that the Evansville Police Department information technology team has “no plans on blocking access to the public.”

Bolin said he believes that public access benefits law enforcement and the citizenry. More people submit tips if they know about potential incidents quickly, Bolin said.

“If you had everything encrypted and that wasn’t getting out, we would lose that whole element – which solved tons of crimes for us,” Bolin told the Courier & Press.

He added that the Henderson Police Department does not currently plan to encrypt its radio system.

Arguments over access and transparency

Encrypting radio traffic has become more common across the U.S. in the last year or so. Hamilton County, Indiana blocked the public from hearing scanner traffic last July, while Hendricks County now releases fire and police calls on a 15-minute delay.

Larger cities such as Louisville, Chicago and Denver have encrypted, or plan to encrypt, their traffic as well, the Indy Star reported. In addition to the worry that criminals are following along in real time, tracking police movements as they happen, some officials have expressed concern about victims’ personal information getting blasted across the airwaves for all to hear.

That was reportedly part of the rationale for the recent decision to block scanner traffic in Owensboro, Kentucky. And there were allegedly other issues, too. Deputy Police Chief J.D. Winkler told the Owensboro Times he’d also heard anecdotally that citizens were making a game out of the dispatches, listening for reports and trying to see if they could beat officers to the scene.

In Denver, the move to encrypt radio traffic sparked backlash from media organizations who used the scanner for breaking news coverage. So in 2021, the Colorado legislature passed a law requiring law enforcement agencies to draft a “communications access policy” to allow media to bypass the encryption and listen via “commercially available radio receivers, scanners, or other feasible technology.”

But that required law enforcement and media to negotiate. And Denver Post editor Lee Ann Colacioppo said the paper and police could never reach a deal.

“As I recall, what they wanted in terms of an agreement was too intrusive, so we took a pass,” she told the Courier & Press. “It hasn’t made any difference, to be honest.”

Scanner traffic and inaccurate reporting

Media ethicists have long debated the value of directly reporting unverified police radio reports to the public without corroboration that those reports are actually accurate.

In 2013, during searches for the Boston Marathon bombers, law enforcement temporarily cut public access to police radio channels after media outlets and Twitter users publicized unconfirmed and inaccurate reports.

Since then, citizen journalists and watchdog groups have sprung up around the country for the purposes of transcribing police radio traffic in real-time on social media. The organization EvansvilleWatch boasts more than 210,000 followers on Facebook, where it republishes police radio chatter and public safety incidents.

With a follower base that eclipses the city’s population, EvansvilleWatch’s posts often generate lengthy public debates – and sometimes arguments – about what a particular report means, and most of the organizations’ posts are sponsored by local businesses.

The proliferation of online scanner feeds, such as Broadcastify, and groups like EvansvilleWatch add a further complication to the mix for law enforcement agencies that want to balance competing interests of transparency, officer safety and privacy.

“There’s some real benefits to that, because we can’t possibly get messaging out there to the public as efficiently as (sites) like EvansvilleWatch,” Robinson said. “They’re literally transcribing it in real-time. … But there are obviously some drawbacks to that, in terms of maintaining our officers’ and deputies’ safety and preventing criminals from gaining an edge.”

Robinson was quick to reiterate that local law enforcement sees real value in affording the public and media organizations access to police radio channels and the real-time updates that groups like EvansvilleWatch provide. The question is whether that access should be instantaneous, he said.

“I do think a serious conversation needs to happen about what is timely,” Robinson said. “How soon is too soon?”

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Evansville-Vanderburgh police consider scanner encryption