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More than two months after the city removed first responder radio traffic from public radio waves, the city administration is still deciding to restore access to communications that Honolulu police officials say must be concealed to help maintain public safety.
The long-standing ability of the public and news media to listen to dispatch radio communications from publicly funded fire, police and emergency medical services came to an end on February 15 when the latest phase of a $15 million conversion of the city’s analog system to a Motorola P25 digital system was completed. .
The decision to upgrade radios and encrypt first responder radio traffic in real time was made during the administration of former Mayor Kirk Caldwell.
Warren Izumigawa, supervisor of the Honolulu Police Department’s Telecommunications Systems Section, told the Honolulu Police Commission last week that HPD was the latest government entity in Hawaii to complete the conversion of the P25, in the part of a decades-long movement to improve law enforcement, military, fire, emergency medical services, and other government communications systems nationwide.
P25 radios provide police and first responders the ability to freely communicate and transmit sensitive data between county, state and federal departments and agencies, and have given police officers “an incredible increase in (geographical) coverage compared to our old system,” Izumigawa said. Wednesday.
From 1990 to the present, the majority of public safety agencies in the United States that have implemented radio system upgrades have moved to the P25 and encrypted their systems, Izumigawa said. Most of the 16 radio towers that run the city’s system have been replaced by P25 “relay sites” that run 700/800 MHz dual-band digital voice radio.
He cited communications, operations and information security and compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 as reasons why HPD opposes restoring access to the public and media to radio traffic they have had access to since at least the 1930s. The public has never been able to legally listen to the tactical channels used by first responders during emergencies and operations, search and real-time surveys.
“Primarily (the US Department of Justice) CJIS, Criminal Justice Information System Compliance…it defines where end-to-end communication…the system must be encrypted or secure…the information is secure at all times. … This is something we cannot jeopardize,” Izumigawa said in response to a question from police commission chair Shannon Alivado about whether news agencies and the public could be restored before conversion. “At the end of the day…it’s a matter of safety. Everyone goes home at the end of the day, finds their family and loved ones. We need to secure our communications to make sure everyone goes home at the end of the day.
The HPD also cited Title 47 of the FCC Rule, the requirement to protect criminal justice and protected personal information, and the need to comply with state law protecting information about minors.
Police Commissioner Kenneth Silva, a retired fire chief from Honolulu, responded that he “just wanted to make sure that HPD is trying to address the concerns that we’ve heard in the past and that we’ll get an update. day on any compromise or any work-through…that it’s not going to stay as is.
Acting Police Chief Rade Vanic told Silva and the commission that the department was still working on its media notification system in the absence of access to radio transmissions. He said HPD is working to make the 24-hour computer-assisted dispatch system service call tally available to the public and the media through the department’s website.
The dispatch system assigns an eight-digit number to each police service call that officers respond to.
“We’re still working on it,” Vanic said. “We want to make sure that … the information we provide is sufficient to provide information to the public, but not to the point of putting not only our officers but even the public at risk and also to release information that should, quite frankly, be protected. It’s something we’re continuing to work on, and hopefully in the near future we’ll be able to get the technology out there and make it available.
COMMISSIONER Ann Botticelli, a retired communications officer and former journalist, asked Vanic if the media and police were working together to improve notifications.
HPD currently uses a spreadsheet that is updated for some major incidents, but not all. In April, the number of daily notifications ranged from one to eight per day. On Wednesday, the spreadsheet listed one incident, a water main break.
The spreadsheet is supposed to include incidents of murder, robbery, terrorist threat, assault, and kidnapping, as well as information on missing persons, fires, gas leaks, and gas line breaks. water, police said.
Botticelli asked, “The media right now, are you still working with each other and collaborating on what kind of information the media needs?”
“Based on the information I have received, our notification process has improved significantly since we started about two months ago,” Vanic replied. “Obviously, it’s still a work in progress. There are agencies that have switched to P25 for almost a year now, whereas we have only switched to P25 for a few months. I am hopeful and confident that we can continue to provide the media with the information they need and permanently improve our notifications. »
HPD is working on a more comprehensive print for the general public at no cost that would require no special equipment, according to police.
“HPD remains opposed to public access to the city’s first responder radio system or making the encryption key or radios available to the media,” HPD spokeswoman Michelle Yu told The Star. – Advertise in a press release. “Doing so would compromise system security and violate privacy and security laws. It could also compromise public and officer safety.
IN MARCH, Mayor Rick Blangiardi told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that he would be reviewing a 2018 deal between the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and the Las Vegas media and was “very interested” in the execution of a similar deal with Honolulu Media.
That month, the Star-Advertiser sent copies of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department contract to Blangiardi, the Honolulu City Council, Honolulu Fire Department, HPD, and Emergency Department. from the city.
The deal allows news organizations to pay for their own Motorola P25 radios, which cost up to $10,000 per unit. News outlets have agreed not to modify the equipment or use it other than to monitor LVMPD-approved and programmed channels.
THE POLICE INSPECT the scanners to ensure compliance with the agreement.
“I understand the need to have access – we are looking at that. I would like to get to a place where we don’t shut down the news media,” Blangiardi told the Star-Advertiser in March. “I take this very seriously. I have always been a strong advocate, on a personal level, of transparency in leadership.
On Friday, Blangiardi’s deputy director of communications, Ian Scheuring, told the Star-Advertiser that the city “has not yet taken a position on this matter, and political discussions are ongoing, will refrain from commenting further for the moment”.
Also in March, City Council Speaker Tommy Waters introduced a resolution urging the city administration to restore public access to police, fire and emergency services radio traffic.
The resolution noted that “historically, such dispatch radio communications were over open, unencrypted channels that were accessible to the media and the public.”
“The media relied on their ability to monitor radio communications to disseminate emergency-related information to the general public, and some of the public monitored dispatch radio communications as a means of keeping abreast of events. within the community,” the statement read. resolution.
