PulsePoint

"Right now, PulsePoint will give you the location of medical, traffic accident, and fire calls, but with no details."

As the San Diego County Sheriff's Department real-time radio broadcast signal went radio silent for the public on January 11 — locals have been speaking up. "It did keep people informed of police and fire activity in their areas," Gregory Blomberg said to me on January 16. "When the ghetto bird (helicopter) is up and making announcements, you can rarely understand it. And although they made a 'Text to 9-1-1' line to inform you what the helicopter is saying, that text line rarely gives you an answer, either."

Since 2013, Blomberg, a hairstylist from Escondido, and others who monitored digital, analog, and downloadable-app scanners — kept their fellow 4,500 Escondido Police Scanners followers on Facebook, informed. "Most people here use scanner apps on their phones; unless it's keyed to Escondido's encryption, you might not get much."

That Tuesday, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department encrypted their broadcast signal, per the California Department of Justice's October 2020 mandate.

Continued Blomberg, "Right now, the app PulsePoint will give you the location of medical, traffic accident, and fire calls, but with no details. So you're still left in the dark about road closures or the severity of the incident."

As the sheriff's open radio broadcast transitioned over to an exclusive encrypted signal that same morning, "authorized law enforcement, criminal justice personnel or their lawfully authorized designees (including first responders)" — who all have privies to the new CLETS (California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System) terminal — rendezvoused at the 2200 block of Montecito Road in Ramona. At around 8:30 am, they met with the individual who called in about a burning structure located about two miles west of the 67 and 78.

Scanners' petition

"During their (the sheriff's bomb/arson team) initial investigation, firefighters discovered a body outside of the structure," reads the sheriff's press release in part. "The medical examiner's office will identify the body, as well as determine cause and manner of death once the family has been notified .... No other structures were damaged, and no evacuations were necessary."

The press release went live on the sheriff's site at around 2:30 pm, about six hours after the concerned locals made the initial distress calls — which is what San Diego County radio scanners are worried about.

"This [encryption] change will limit evacuation information and updates on fire size, spread, and location for all areas serviced by SDSO (San Diego Sheriff officials)," tweeted SD County Fire Scanner that Tuesday afternoon. "Approximately 1 million residents are serviced by the Sheriff's Department; SDSO services all unincorporated portions of the county, 18 Indian reservations, and the cities of Del Mar, Encinitas, Imperial Beach, Lemon Grove, Poway, San Marcos, Santee, Solana Beach, and Vista."

Blomberg and his scanner mates are not happy with the recent radio-signal encryption, and they are signing a San Diego Sheriffs Department Public Information Transparency petition on the Change.org site. "I get it to a point, now knowing more of the reasons of encryption," he said, "but It isn't hard to put personal information on a separate channel."

Blomberg is speaking of the personally identifiable information relayed on the law enforcement broadcasts. It is used to trace or distinguish 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," reads the CDOJ's October 2020 bulletin. "Data elements include social security number, passport number, military identification number, and other unique ID numbers issued on a government document. The most common data elements encountered during field operations include a driver license number or ID number."

Alex, a local Redditor, 10-4s that. "Honestly, the way cops do their jobs — they need to be able to yell over the radio anything and everything. [For example:] "I'm following a blue Dodge, tag ABC456. White male driver." Then if dispatch comes back, "We show it registered to a Tom Green, convicted felon for firearms possession." Would they [be able to] type it into a computer on the fly? Have a second, [switch over to an] encrypted channel just for private info requests? .... so either they encrypt their transmissions to protect that or they limit the broadcast of private info on the radio."

The petition that Blomberg signed and shared is up to 100 signatures as this article goes to print. It reads in part: "San Diego Police Department had the option to go fully encrypted, but they chose to only encrypt a specific channel called 'Inquiry' that is used to run people's information, such as driver license numbers, addresses, and DOB. We ask that Bill Gore will use SDPD as an example to be transparent with the community and make sure the community is well informed of what's going on."

"It's not always feasible for us to switch channels," Lt. Amber Baggs, a spokesperson from the sheriff's department, reportedly said in part. She added that it's "difficult or sometimes impossible" for sheriff deputies and dispatchers to switch over from an unencrypted channel to an encrypted channel, or vice versa, in emergency situations only to protect personal information.