The silence is deafening. And it’s going to get louder.
The NYPD began encrypting its radio transmissions on Staten Island in February.
That means that members of the media and the public no longer hear real-time NYPD reports of shootings, stabbings, accidents and other incidents that patrol officers respond to.
That means that print, television and online reporters can no longer respond to those same crime scenes and can no longer share information about incidents with their audiences.
That means that ordinary Islanders with police scanners, who have listened in on police calls for decades with no obvious impacts on public safety, are deprived of immediate, first-hand knowledge of what’s going on in their neighborhood and their borough.
It means that we only have the NYPD to rely on for information about crime.
That’s wrong. And it’s dangerous.
Public servants need to be accountable, especially those who are charged with public safety. The public has a right to know about dangerous situations as they’re happening. The media has a right to the information.
For the media, there is simply no substitute for being on the scene as the police work a crime scene.
All citywide NYPD transmissions will be encrypted the same way by 2025. Staten Island just happened to be........