ARLA/CLUSTER: Colorado nos E.U.A. proíbe que as comunicações vulgares da policia sejam encriptadas e tem de ter livre acesso através de scanner´s

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

Bill that would keep Colorado law enforcement from encrypting all
their radio traffic fails, but not before sparking debate


A bill seeking to stop Colorado law enforcement from encrypting, and
therefore hiding, all of their emergency radio communications met its
demise Thursday but sparked a debate about the public’s right to know
— pitting journalists against police agencies as it went down.

Even as members of the House State, Veterans, and Military Affairs
Committee rejected the measure brought by state Rep. Kevin Van Winkle,
a Highlands Ranch Republican, they raised concern about the issue and
urged him to bring it back at a later date.

“I think you’re on to something,” said Rep. Jovan Melton, a committee
member and Democrat from Aurora.

The legislation, House Bill 1061, sought to keep Colorado’s police
agencies from encrypting all of their radio channels — as several
departments across the state, from Aurora to Fort Collins have done —
and would have made it a crime to monitor dispatch traffic while in
the commission of a crime.It also would have allowed law enforcement
to switch on encryption for their communications during investigations
or tactical responses, such as SWAT activities.

But police agencies were united in their opposition to the bill during
Thursday’s committee hearing, saying it threatened to put officers and
the public at risk.

“We think that this is an unnecessary bill that presents a threat to
public safety,” said Kevin Klein, director of the Colorado Division of
Homeland Security and Emergency Management. “… We think it is
restrictive.”

Klein pointed to Twitter posts made during the 2015 Planned Parenthood
shooting in Colorado Springs where users discussed police tactics and
positions from the law enforcement scanner as an example of why the
communications need to be hidden at times.

“What we don’t want (officers) to do is be fumbling with their radio
any more than they have to,” Chief Dave Hayes, of the Louisville
Police Department, said of the prospect of officers switching between
encrypted and non-encrypted channels. “…It does have an impact on an
already taxed communication center.”

In a counter-argument, the Colorado Press Association and Colorado
Broadcasters Association framed access to emergency communications as
something that promotes public safety. They also contended that
allowing blanket encryption turns police agencies gatekeepers of that
information.