BERKELEY — Full public entry to police scanner exercise within the East Bay will quickly be unavailable after Berkeley councilmembers gave the town’s police division permission to encrypt radio communications Tuesday.
The council’s determination reverses a metropolis coverage adopted in 2021 that prohibited encryption typically. Berkeley Police Chief Jennifer Louis stated the change was essential to align with state and federal privateness necessities, defend officers when on obligation and stop potential suspects from evading arrest.
Having thought-about options, Louis stated switching between encrypted and unencrypted channels can be difficult given a dispatch staffing scarcity and delaying the feed or making a key or workaround for media wouldn’t resolve the difficulty of defending delicate data, as required by a 2020 memo from former California Legal professional Basic 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 stated in the course of the assembly.
Councilmembers voted 8-1 to allow full radio encryption, with Councilmember Cecilia Lunaparra the lone dissent.
That vote got here after greater than two dozen public audio system implored the council to outright deny the request or additional discover the difficulty with higher group enter. Opponents of full encryption, together with pedestrian and bike advocates and impartial police oversight organizations, shared considerations that an essential software for monitoring police exercise and remaining knowledgeable throughout emergencies can be stripped from the general public, vastly harming police transparency.
A robust voice in opposition to full encryption was Andrea Prichett, founding father of Berkeley Copwatch, a police accountability group began in early 1990. Prichett stated she has virtually by no means heard personally identifiable data shared on public strains throughout her 35 years monitoring the police division.
Along with caring concerning the lack of knowledge used to justify arguments for encryption, Prichett echoed public considerations that the Police Accountability Board didn’t have a possibility to assessment the coverage change earlier than it was dropped at the council.
The board was fashioned lately after greater than 85% of Berkeley voters supported including the physique to the constitution in 2020, changing the Police Evaluate Fee that had been in place since 1973.
“The impact of the chief’s decision and the council following the chief is that the public is excluded from the project of public safety,” Prichett stated. “Berkeley prides itself on having such a professional police department. What’s unknowable is the impact of having direct city monitoring of the police for 30 years.”
Police Accountability Board Chair Josh Cayetano and Police Accountability Workplace Director Hansel Alejandro Aguilar additionally have been involved a few lack of knowledge or civilian assessment of the proposal. They each signed a letter to the council requesting they take extra time to analysis the difficulty earlier than approval.
“While recognizing the legitimate concerns for officer safety, the balance between safety and transparency must be guided by dialogue informed by the data,” the letter learn. “Berkeley’s leadership in civilian oversight is grounded in transparency, inclusion and accountability. … Before turning off the radios, we must first listen to the data, to our Charter-established oversight bodies, and to the people of Berkeley.”
A majority of councilmembers finally sided with the police division after Louis offered a compromise within the type of a “near real-time” log that may inform the general public of incident varieties, occasions and normal places, amongst different attainable data, utilizing the division’s computer-assisted dispatch system.
That supplemental proposal was additionally drafted with help from Lunaparra, who stated she initially deliberate to help the coverage change however determined to vote towards the measure after listening to the general public’s discontent.
“I ultimately agree with this item and hope we can continue to work to improve some of this,” Lunaparra stated. “This is a very complicated piece and I think it deserves complicated thoughts.”
Different councilmembers stated their help for a change got here from concern for officer security, Berkeley changing into a hotbed of crime if it remained the one metropolis with unencrypted police scanners and a sense of belief within the division and its practices.
Mayor Adena Ishii, who stated she shared Lunaparra’s conflicted emotions, was additionally sympathetic to arguments that scanner feeds may very well be utilized by folks seeking to hurt victims of crime. Councilmember Igor Tregub stated he nervous federal brokers and immigration officers might use the feed to trace down susceptible residents.
“I do really want the public to understand that we had many conversations, that we spoke with the chief, that we spoke with our city manager and really what came out of this was the chief supplement,” Ishii stated. “I really appreciate the partnership there and I hear what folks are saying, the concerns they have.”
The Berkeley Police Division didn’t reply to requests for remark Wednesday relating to how they presently defend delicate data, what knowledge they need to help their arguments that scanners are getting used to evade officers or whether or not particulars like somebody’s immigration standing is shared on public channels, amongst different questions.
Officer Jessica Perry, spokesperson for the division, issued an announcement to media companions stating the division “remains committed to transparency and to providing timely and accurate information to the public,” and detailing how media can contact the company for extra data on incidents as encryption is instituted.
Louis stated in the course of the assembly that the division is ready to modify to encryption and roll out the brand new incident log “relatively quickly.” As for searching for scanner recordings by means of public data requests, Louis stated the division would wish to assessment authorities code given the necessity to defend delicate data and the workload burden that might outcome from needing to make redactions.
