The department has switched over to a completely encrypted system for all its communications, routine and otherwise, so that the general public can no longer listen to police radio calls with scanners or specially programmed mobile devices to police radio calls.
Scanners, until earlier this month, delivered police reports in short staccato bursts about everything from shoplifters on Greenwich Avenue to kids hanging out in parking lots to erratic drivers getting pulled over on Saturday night. That "chatter" between cops and their dispatcher, an auditory snapshot of the community's underside, has now gone silent.
The move is a reversal of a 2009 decision to keep the open-ended communication channel public.
Police Chief Jim Heavey explained the rationale for the new policy in an email:
"There were several factors in the decision to put the police department radio transmissions in encryption. The number one reason was officer safety. We have received credible intelligence that criminals were using scanners and smart phone applications to monitor the location and activities of police officers. Another factor was that some of the information that comes over the police radio is of a confidential nature and this better protects privacy concerns."
A number of freedom-of-information advocates have been seeking to slow the trend toward total encryption, as numerous police departments in the region are switching over. They say the public interest is better served by open communications.
The police department in Meriden was among the first to use an encrypted communications system in 2011, and other departments in the region have been following suit. Advanced communications technology that police departments have been installing -- digital instead of analog -- allows for easy encryption. Greenwich installed a $5.5 million digital communications system in 2009.
Public-information advocates like James Smith said they are disappointed by the growing trend toward encryption. Smith described the police scanner as one of the mechanisms that build up an informal system of checks and balances over powerful institutions like law enforcement.
"Knowing how the police respond, and whether they respond competently or not, it's important for the public to know," said Smith, a former newspaper editor who presides over the Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information, an open-government advocacy organization. "The police are paid by the public, they're meant to serve the public -- which they mainly do -- so when they shut off information about the police, the public is in the dark about how they're performing. It causes concern and questions about how safe our communities are."
Smith said he understood the need for certain transmissions to be kept quiet, but said a blanket policy was misguided.
"Some info needs to be held tightly, but there's a balance," he said. Full encryption also hinders news organizations that used scanner traffic as a way of gathering and reporting breaking news.
Paul Curtis, an advocate of open government in Greenwich who set up a system to put police communications onto the Internet, questioned whether a modified form of encryption would not have worked.
"The Greenwich Police Department has other means of communicating sensitive information -- messaging via their (mobile devices) -- so I'm not sure if this is truly necessary," he said.
Some departments have been using social media and other formats to engage the public in police activities in the absence of open radio transmissions. The Greenwich Police Department has a Twitter account that provides occasional updates on crimes, traffic accidents and other emergency situations.
A number of law enforcement experts trace the drive toward total encryption to the hunt for suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. Information about possible sightings of the suspects, based on scanner chatter, went into wider circulation, and authorities in the region took steps to keep their communications out of the public realm.
While public-information laws vary widely across the nation, there is no law requiring access by journalists or the public to police radio communications. A 2010 bill in Hartford requiring local police departments to broadcast routine dispatch calls failed to advance -- with police chiefs coming out in opposition. The move by Stamford police to encrypt radio signals in 2009 figured into those discussions at the state House.
The previous Greenwich police chief, David Ridberg, in 2009 said he would continue public radio transmissions.
"Government at all levels frequently finds itself caught between competing interests in public safety communications: the `right to know' versus `the need to know.' Transparency is often the nemesis of security and striking a reasonable balance between the two is a goal. We believe we have met that goal," Ridberg said at the time.
Chief Heavey said the new system would allow for other emergency responders to communicate easily. "The Greenwich police department operates the dispatch center for police, fire and EMS so we will continue to coordinate our joint efforts without any disruption due to the encryption. The police department administers the town radio system for all departments, and the system is set up to allow for excellent interoperability. An example of this is we can put police, fire and EMS on a `public safety' frequency if needed during a special event or emergency," the chief wrote in an email.
The transition has not posed problems with the Greenwich Emergency Medical Service or the Fire Department, officials said.
"It's not a big change for us," said Assistant Fire Chief Robert Kick.
Charlee Tufts, executive director of GEMS, agreed.
"We're always in contact with dispatch," she said. "We're dispatched simultaneously with police. It's a close working relationship."
Town Selectman Drew Marzullo said he was opposed to the policy change. Officer-safety is the priority, Marzullo said, but "open communication ensures that the public receives information as quickly as possible allowing for real time dissemination. Police departments have the ability to communicate securely without reverting to full radio silence."
©2015 The Advocate (Stamford, Conn.)
