SALT LAKE CITY — This is how we often get our information from local news.

By listening to police, fire and medical calls, we can find out what’s going on in your community. and we can bring you the news you need to hear.

But a new push could eliminate the ability to hear these radios. Some agencies say it’s to protect the public, while others disagree.

Every day at FOX 13 News, dozens of stories are collected thanks to our ability to listen to scanners.

A nationwide effort is underway to upgrade police scanners to something called Project25 or P25.

Essentially, it means agencies can talk to each other and receive clearer transmissions — an overall benefit to law enforcement across the country.

In Utah, the project is nearly complete, with only Salt Lake, Juab and Utah counties remaining to be upgraded. But state agencies are using P25 as an opportunity to encrypt their radios and shut everyone down.

“You know, not only journalists would be affected by this action. It’s the general public,” said Dan Shelly, president of the Radio Television Digital News Association. “If I hear a loud explosion near my house and happen to be listening to a police scanner, if I can’t hear that information, I don’t know if I’m in danger or not.”

Agencies from New York to California have encrypted their signals, with battles being fought in nearly every state over the issue.

In our neighboring state of Colorado, agencies encrypted their radios in 2018. Then in 2021, a law was passed to decrypt certain channels for the media. But even today, some agencies refuse to cooperate.

Here in Utah, Washington County is the only agency so far that has already encrypted their scanners.

The state’s largest police department – ​​Salt Lake City PD – has also decided to move to full encryption.

SLCPD says Beaver, Box Elder, Cache, Kane, Weber, Carbon and Salt Lake counties are also considering the option of encrypting their scanners — either partially or fully. But that could change entirely, with the agencies having until the end of the year to decide.

“We certainly recognize that we’ve had to balance and address this issue, this very difficult issue, as best we can,” SLCPD spokesman Brent Weisberg said. “So as we look at this technology, we’ve decided it’s our responsibility as a public. security agency to ensure that we protect that personally identifiable information.”

The risk of transmitting sensitive information is the prevailing theme among law enforcement agencies looking to encrypt, meaning those agencies will now be responsible for the flow of information.

It’s something Shelly doesn’t agree with.

“In a word, bastards,” said the RTDNA president. “I have no reason to distrust the Salt Lake City Police Department, but I will say this: If they go out of their way to hide some of their live radio channels, there is no law that says that must encrypt, then why encrypt?”

One solution could be to encrypt channels that are intended for tactical operations or sensitive information – which is how scanners already work, with many agencies encrypting sensitive channels but leaving general ones open.

“Law enforcement agencies have been able to do this for decades. Why now all of a sudden, ‘Whoa, we’re going to take this access away from the public?'” Shelly said.

FOX 13 News asked Weisberg about the topic to see if it’s a solution the department has considered, and his response was this:

“It certainly was. So one of the things we looked at was, should we just encrypt our tactical channels, whether it’s our SWAT channels or the channel that detectives might use if they’re under surveillance? We still recognize that on our main channels, however, that personally identifiable information is still broadcast in real time. It doesn’t make sense for an officer when seconds matter to get information relayed to each other, they don’t have the ability to change the channel.”

The Salt Lake City Police Department is committed that without access to police scanners, they will remain transparent and respond to all media requests, Weisberg reiterated when asked Tuesday.

Shelly, on the other hand, doesn’t think it’s enough, saying it should be a public right to listen.

“Police officers are not qualified to determine what is news and what is not news. That is the job of the public and that is the job of journalists – we are their surrogates,” he said.

Bottom line: This will change a lot about how the media and the public get their information.

“We recognize that this will definitely be a change for the media. It will be a change for members of our community, but our commitment at the Salt Lake City Police Department remains unchanged,” Weisberg said.

Shelly rejected the change, concluding: “The presumption should always fall on openness and transparency, not secrecy and opacity. What do they have to hide?”

As a result of these agencies moving to encryption, FOX 13 will rely much more on you, the viewer, to let us know what you see happening. Our phone lines and email are always open for news tips. Our email address is [email protected] and our phone number is 801-536-1313.

Anytime, day or night, let us know what’s happening so we can continue to help Utahns stay informed as best as possible. We will continue to follow this story as it develops over the next few months and continue to advocate for our viewers and readers.