In Aurora, Colorado, in 2016 and then in Denver in 2019, police radio transmissions went silent. Many journalists, accustomed to using newsroom scanners for monitoring police radio communications to identify newsworthy events, found themselves suddenly disconnected from crucial updates on events jeopardizing public safety, impeding their ability to report promptly.
“Like law enforcement, broadcasters play a vital role in protecting the public, by distributing vital information to a mass audience, quickly. Broadcasters have responsibly utilized law enforcement radio communications for years,” Justin Sasso, CEO of the Colorado Broadcasters Association told Truthout. “There are no examples of broadcaster access resulting in harm to an officer or victim. However, since broadcast journalists and newsrooms have been cut off from law enforcement radios there are multiple incidents of communities not learning about active shooters, wildfires and matters of public safety in a timely manner.”
According to the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, by May 2021, more than 30 law enforcement agencies in the state had encrypted their radio transmissions. Although journalists have the right to request police radio transmissions under the Colorado Criminal Justice Records Act, these records may be withheld or redacted.
Encrypting police radio transmissions has become increasingly common nationwide. In fact, the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA), the largest professional organization dedicated solely to broadcast and digital journalism, has said that radio encryption is the foremost concern among its members. “[T]he consequences of encryption prevent the public from accessing information about the activities of police in real-time. These communications provide individuals and newsrooms with essential updates on issues happening in their communities such as violent crime, hazardous conditions or officer-involved shootings,” Dan Shelley, the president and CEO of RTDNA, wrote in January 2023. “The move to encrypt police scanner communications puts the public — and the newsrooms that serve them by seeking and reporting the truth — at risk.”
Press freedom advocates say that this surge in encryption can be traced back to the heightened scrutiny and demand for police accountability spurred by the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in 2020. Following the BLM protests in 2020, during which citizens monitored police scanners and documented racist remarks made by law enforcement over radio frequencies, police departments nationwide introduced encryption protocols for routine police communications.
“In 2020 we had text messages from police that became public record showing they were only enforcing curfew against protesters — no one else. This is yet another moment where police communications reveal their intent to attack protests and harm anyone who isn’t of the ruling class,” Z Williams, director of client support and operations at the Denver-based nonprofit Bread and Roses Legal Center, told Truthout.
“Police communications demonstrated that the intent during the entire BLM uprising in 2020 was to be as violent as possible. They want to hide these communications now to avoid future lawsuits. There is no other justification,” Williams said.
In response to this nationwide trend of police departments adopting encrypted radio transmissions, in tandem with the criticism of broadcasters in the state, Colorado state lawmakers introduced a bill aimed at upholding public access to information.
In 2021, Colorado passed HB 21-1250, which mandates that governmental entities that employ radio encryption draft journalist access policies........