"Berkeley Police Chief Jennifer Louis said the change was necessary to align with state and federal privacy requirements, protect officers when on duty and prevent potential suspects from evading arrest. Having considered alternatives, Louis said switching between encrypted and unencrypted channels would be challenging given a dispatch staffing shortage and delaying the feed or creating a key or workaround for media would not solve the issue of protecting sensitive information, as required by a 2020 memo from former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra."
"Encyption addresses these concerns that have emerged and become more prevalent recently. We do understand that there is a level of access that's going to be lost by going to encryption and we want to continue to provide as much information as we can as quickly as we can, that's accurate, Louis said during the meeting. Councilmembers voted 8-1 to permit full radio encryption, with Councilmember Cecilia Lunaparra the lone dissent."
Berkeley will encrypt police radio communications, reversing a 2021 policy that mostly prohibited encryption and ending full public access to scanner feeds. Police Chief Jennifer Louis cited alignment with state and federal privacy requirements, officer safety and preventing suspects from evading arrest as reasons for encryption. Alternatives were considered but switching channels is difficult due to a dispatch staffing shortage, and delaying the feed or creating media workarounds would not protect sensitive information as required by a 2020 memo from former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra. The council approved full encryption in an 8-1 vote despite public opposition concerned about reduced transparency.
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