The Palo Alto Police Department is pushing back against attempts by some members of the City Council to reverse its policy of encrypting police radio communication, which prevents the media and members of the public from using scanners to monitoring police activities.
The policy change was made by City Manager Ed Shikada and Police Chief Robert Jonsen in January 2021 with no council involvement or advance warning. Both had claimed since then that it was adopted to comply with an October 2020 order from the state Department of Justice, which requires law enforcement agencies to protect personal identifiable information such as an individual’s Social Security number or passport number. The DOJ memo does, however, allow agencies to adopt policies that protect this information without fully encrypting their communications, as the California Highway Patrol had done… READ MORE
