From the Founders:

The Minnesota Star Tribune newspaper today published a lengthy article about Minneapolis police scanner encryption, giving space to both supporters and critics. We welcomed their coverage and the discussion of the topic. But the central truth is this: encryption doesn’t serve the public, it silences all of us.

Law enforcement leaders insist encryption is necessary for officer safety, compliance with federal rules and preventing misinformation. None of those claims stand up to scrutiny.

Take officer safety. Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher, hardly a soft-on-crime figure, said he can’t recall a single instance where open scanner traffic endangered officers. Yet the article highlighted rare anecdotes, like someone livestreaming during a manhunt, as if they justify a permanent blackout of every channel. They don’t. Those are outliers, not daily risks.

Federal compliance is another justification. Officials point to federal rules about broadcasting private data. But that’s a problem with a simple solution. Moving sensitive traffic to currently existing secured channels, which already happens every day multiple times throughout the state. Minnesota’s ARMER system is designed for exactly this—allowing officers to switch to secure “talkgroups” for running driver’s license numbers, warrant checks or sensitive information. From all the publicly available data we can find, sensitive details haven’t been routinely broadcast over the main radio channels since the ARMER system was implemented.

The Star Tribune quoted Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Megan Larson, who claimed “it isn’t as easy as, ‘Change to channel 2.’” Minneapolis officials added they don’t have “the personnel or the technology” to run delayed or redacted public feeds. That excuse is simply not true.