The Oakland Police Department will encrypt its radio communications starting at 4 a.m. Wednesday, ending decades of public access to real-time dispatch chatter. The encryption will prevent anyone outside law enforcement from listening to emergencies ranging from earthquakes to routine traffic stops, robberies, burglaries and shootings. State Sen. Josh Becker and police accountability advocates called the move disturbing and harmful, noting longstanding public access and urging accountability and transparency. Mayor Barbara Lee said she was surprised and pledged to look into the decision, emphasizing the importance of transparency. Several other Bay Area and California cities have similarly cut public access, often citing a 2020 California Department of Justice directive despite no encryption requirement.
The Oakland Police Department plans to silence its radios this week, cutting off public access to real-time information that has been available to the public for decades. Beginning at 4 a.m. Wednesday, all chatter between dispatchers and police will be pulled behind a curtain, according to an internal email reviewed by this news organization. No longer will anyone outside law enforcement be able to listen in to emergencies,
The move to "encrypt" - or make secret - calls about crimes and how officers respond to them was described by a state senator and police accountability advocates as "disturbing" and "harmful," especially for a department still struggling to reform itself. "I'm very upset and disappointed," said state Sen. Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, who has repeatedly tried to pass legislation in recent years to significantly restrict law enforcement agencies' ability to encrypt their communications.
The plan came as a surprise to Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee, who was elected a week before the city's police department began the monthslong process of preparing its radios to no longer transmit over public airwaves. In an interview Thursday, Lee promised to "look into it," adding that "transparency is very important to me." Several other cities across the Bay Area and the state have similarly ended public access to their radio traffic.
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