Mayor Adams Reassures NYPD Will “Strike the Right Balance” With Encrypted Police Radios

By Yehudit Garmaise

“People think that the encryption of radios is about preventing the press from hearing our comments,” Mayor Eric Adams said today at City Hall when he was asked about this week's announcement that all police radio channels will be fully encoded within one year. 

“No!” Mayor Adams insisted. “The bad guys are listening to these channels. They know when we are responding. They know where we are.”

In contrast to the NYPD’s current analog radio system, which has been which have been accessible to the public since 1932, the audio signals of the NYPD’s new radios will be digitally encoded so that eavesdroppers, nor hackers will be able to understand police communication.

To prevent criminals and “bad actors” from hearing police communication, only authorized parties will be able to access the NYPD’s newly encrypted two-way radios, which will modify voice signals by using a coding algorithm.

The public and the press have monitored police activity via radio for nearly 100 years, but at a City Council hearing yesterday, Ruben Beltran, the NYPD’s Chief of Information Technology, said the airwaves had to be guarded more closely as they are followed by “bad guys” as well as honest citizens and journalists.

Criminals can evade getting caught by police by listening to the radios to determine cops’ locations, Beltran pointed out. Sometimes “bad actors” disrupt professional police communications by interfering with music or their own voices.

Sadly, “ambulance chaser” attorneys and tow truck companies have followed police activities that are now freely accessible over the airwave to make money off medical emergencies.”

When faced with objections from the press and the public that they have a right to monitor NYPD activity, the mayor responded, “We are going to find the right balance to make sure that people are allowed to stay on top of the actions of the police department. But we can’t give a leg up to these bad guys: knowing when we are responding to jobs. They can listen to calls of service. They monitor themselves. It is not the press that concerns us, it is that these bad guys are becoming more and more sophisticated. When you are putting that communication out there, you are jeopardizing the safety of the public and police officers. We will find the proper balance to make sure we can do it appropriately.”