- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Lake County’s law enforcement agencies move to radio encryption
It’s a move that California’s law enforcement agencies — estimated at about 500 — are faced with making, although based on information from the State Legislature only about a quarter of those have moved to the new and expensive radio systems.
Press and First Amendment organizations have pushed back, although bills introduced in the State Legislature that would have altered or turned back the project have failed to advance.
Encryption is a process of modifying radio traffic in order to enable it to become secure. A typical police scanner would not be able to pick up or monitor encrypted radio traffic.
However, the new rules will not impact fire or other emergency traffic, and since the changes have gone into effect, much of Lake County’s scanner traffic has remained available on traditional scanners, both on and offline.
The encryption requirements come from the California Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Criminal Justice Information Services Security Policy.
The California Attorney General’s Office, which includes the Department of Justice, told Lake County News that it is not directly monitoring the hundreds of law enforcement agencies operating across the state with regards to meeting this requirement, and that it’s up to those agencies to comply.
The Clearlake Police Department has already completed the transition, with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and Lakeport Police Department in the process.
The California Attorney General’s Office issued an information bulletin October 2020 to all agencies that subscribe to the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, or CLETS, explaining the rules regarding radio transmission of protected data.
In that bulletin, California Justice Information Services Division Chief Joe Dominic said all law enforcement and criminal justice agencies subscribing to CLETS, must adhere to CLETS policies, procedures and practices and the FBI’s CJIS in order to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the data.
Dominic said access to certain criminal justice information and personally identifiable information must be limited to authorized personnel, and the transmission of that information must be encrypted.
He referred to the CLETS Policies, Practices and Procedures regulations, which say that any information from CLETS is confidential and for official use only. “Access is defined as the ability to hear or view any information provided through the CLETS.”
The personally identifiable information the state’s directives apply to include “information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual’s identity, such as an individual’s first name, or first initial, and last name in combination with any one or more specific data elements, such as Social security number, passport number, military ID number, and any other unique ID numbers issued on a government document.
“The most common data elements encountered during field operations include a driver's license number or ID number,” the bulletin said.
The Attorney General’s Office said compliance with the requirements was possible through two options: encryption of radio traffic or establishing policies to restrict dissemination of specific information to protect restricted database information and combinations of named and data elements that meet the definition of personally identifiable information.
Agencies approach the move
Not all agencies are being required to go to encryption.
“Since the California Highway Patrol (CHP) uses low-band radios for communication, and that technology is older and does not support digital encryption, the CHP has no plans on this topic,” CHP spokesperson Jaime Coffee told Lake County News. Coffee has since left the CHP.
An October 2020 CHP memo updated departmental policy and procedures for the use of unencrypted radio channels related to the protection of Criminal Justice Information obtained from the Criminal Justice Information System databases and Personally Identifiable Information.
That memo included directions to use computers, tablets or terminals to perform records checks whenever possible; only enough information to complete the request should be given over the radio in a single continuous transmission, with further information sent over computers or tablets; limiting of address information on the air; providing address, date of birth and physical descriptors over the air only when requested; and providing only enough information to
broadcast to aid in identifying and/or locating a potential suspect when an officer or the public safety are in jeopardy.
That memo also noted that the CHP does not allow Criminal History System or Criminal Offender Record Information to be transmitted over the radio. “Dispatch and field personnel shall continue to follow procedures outlined in Highway Patrol Manual (HPM).”
In Lake County, the Clearlake Police Department led off the encryption conversion effort.
Andrew White, Clearlake Police’s chief who left for Martinez earlier this month, said in an interview before his departure that Clearlake Police went live with encryption at the end of September 2021.
He estimated that the department’s overall radio infrastructure and upgrades cost a total of about $150,000, with that amount including the process of getting radios compliant with the encryption technology at about $75,000. Repeater upgrades had already been completed.
“We were replacing radios already,” he said, explaining they were able to leverage the work they already were doing so that they were able to turn on encryption with relatively minimal effort. He said the equipment includes standard Motorola radios.
Radio traffic is encrypted one way, from dispatch, in accordance with the requirements of the California Department of Justice and FBI’s CJIS Security Policy, White said.
He explained that the encryption is to safeguard sensitive information, including personal identifying information, or PII, that originates from the various local, state and federal law enforcement databases.
“While numerous regulations have been implemented to safeguard PII held in databases by public and private entities, it has flowed rather freely across unencrypted law enforcement radio,” he said.
“The implementation of encryption is not a simple feat, especially in rural areas like Lake County with challenging topography and where existing radio systems were analog systems, not capable of supporting encryption. Additionally, implementing encryption creates new challenges for radio interoperability with mutual aid agencies,” White explained.
He added, “Locally, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, Clearlake Police Department and Lakeport Police Department have closely coordinated the roll out of encryption for law enforcement in Lake County to ensure seamless communication between all agencies, including consideration of communication with fire agencies. The use of encryption does present challenges for real-time monitoring particularly by journalists who are often the first to share breaking news impacting public safety.”
White said there are no plans for encryption of fire department radio traffic. “Given that major incidents often involve a dual response of police and fire, it is not anticipated that the encryption will severely hamper public awareness that would have otherwise been obtainable via listening to the police radio via a scanner.”
At the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, Lt. Gavin Wells said the agency has finalized installing the encryption enabled radios in its patrol vehicles in accordance with the requirements of the California Department of Justice and FBI’s CJIS Security Policy.
“At this time the cost of the encryption project is roughly $300,000,” Wells said.
Wells said that work for patrol radios, as well as portable radios, was completed in 2020 and 2021.
The sheriff’s office will not be encrypting its primary traffic like Clearlake Police has, only information from CLETS and CJAS, Wells said.
Wells said another aspect of the project is upgrading the agency’s mountain top repeater sites and the radios in Central Dispatch to be able to function in analog mode or digital mode with encryption and to install new dispatch radios that are encryption enabled.
He didn’t have an estimated time frame for the completion of the work on the repeater due to the complexity of the project and working with outside vendors and their time frames. Wells confirmed this week that the work is still underway.
He said the county of Lake has a contract with the county of Mendocino for tech services and repeater installation. The radios on all of the repeaters are now being replaced so that they are the same.
There are five Lake County Sheriff’s Office repeaters for the primary radio channel, Wells said.
A sixth repeater is in the build out process but it won’t initially be capable of encryption use, but will instead be used for the Mendocino National Forest area, he said.
Wells said there also is an additional repeater for the Sheriff’s Marine Patrol.
Outside of those law enforcement repeaters, Wells said the sheriff’s office maintains four repeaters as part of the RedNet fire channel.
Dispatch also is being upgraded. “That is going to be the last piece of the puzzle,” Wells said.
He said they have the equipment and are waiting to install it, but that it needs to integrate into the dispatch radio console.
The Lakeport Police Department also is working to make its transition to encryption equipment.
At its Oct. 5, 2021, meeting, the Lakeport City Council unanimously approved spending $320,000 to purchase encrypted radios for the police and public works departments. Of that amount, $200,000 goes to police and $120,000 to public works.
By August, Rasmussen said the Lakeport Police Department had completed 90% of the installation of the vehicle and base station radios and had started to use the portable radios but had not fully transitioned.
Rasmussen said the equipment being used so far is not yet encrypted. “That will not happen until the county is fully ready for that,” he said, referring to the repeater upgrades Wells had noted are still underway.
“Our new radios are great so far and have many more advanced features than the old,” Rasmussen said.
Legislation responds to rules but fails to advance
For decades, police and fire scanner traffic have been an important source for journalists and community members in following emergencies and crime response.
Radio encryption has raised legal and transparency issues for a number of organizations dedicated to protecting the First Amendment and representing journalists.
White said some early adopter agencies of encryption allowed access to encrypted communications by journalists, but DOJ regulations were determined to preclude that practice.
In February 2019, Assemblyman Todd Gloria (D-San Diego) AB 1555 was introduced to provide access to encrypted law enforcement radio communications to a duly authorized representative of any news service, newspaper, or radio or television station or network, upon request.”
The bill received support from groups like the California Newspaper Publishers Association and the American Civil Liberties Union, but law enforcement organizations opposed it.
As a result, two months after its introduction, Gloria pulled the bill, saying it required more work, according to news reports.
Then, in February, Sen. Josh Becker, whose 13th Senate District comprises most of San Mateo County and the northern part of Santa Clara County, introduced SB 1000, regarding radio communications.
The Legislative Counsel’s Digest said Becker’s bill would have required a law enforcement agency, including the California Highway Patrol, municipal police departments, county sheriff’s departments, specified local law enforcement agencies, and specified university and college police departments, to ensure public access to the radio communications no later than Jan. 1, 2024.
“This bill would also require those law enforcement agencies to ensure that any criminal justice information or personally identifiable information obtained through CLETS is not broadcast in a manner that is accessible to the public, as specified,” the digest said.
The bill was making its way through the Legislature although it was hitting headwinds due to law enforcement agencies’ concerns about impacts, including costs.
It was sent to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, where it was held in committee and under submission on Aug. 11. That meant it wouldn’t advance.
Becker said in a tweet after the hearing that the Legislation “missed a chance to ensure police transparency & accountability. Without this fix, many agencies will continue to encrypt vital radio communications, cutting off almost 90 yrs of public & press access to critical public safety info. I’ll continue to fight to restore access.”
He also urged law enforcement to follow the model used by other agencies, including the CHP, to use alternatives to full encryption.
“Even if it had become law we really had no concerns as our original plan, before the bill ever became a possibility, was to use them the way the bill proposed — that is not everything would have been encrypted. I know the plans have varied by agency throughout the state,” Rasmussen said of the bill.
So far, there’s been no word about plans for new legislation to be introduced regarding encryption.
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