Manchester (NH) PD Just Went Full Digital Encrypted

[Zappa]

Manchester Police: Nothing 'nefarious' behind city radio silence

Manchester police acknowledged Wednesday that they recently began encrypting all police radio transmissions, putting police communication outside the prying ears of reporters and everyday people with a scanner or smart-phone app.

Police issued an unsigned statement early Wednesday afternoon, as complaints grew about muted police radio scanners over the last several days.

Two weeks ago, Manchester police plugged into the city’s new, debt-funded $5.8 million emergency radio system, a Motorola APX7000L. The encryption began Friday, Assistant Police Chief Carlo Capano said.

Police said encryption helps to keep police officers safe and protects the privacy of citizens.

“We can assure you that our decision had absolutely nothing to do with trying to hide any type of nefarious activity,” the four-paragraph statement reads. “Our reasons ... (are) to provide an updated radio system, protect the public’s privacy, and protect our officers as they work day in and day out to provide a service for the city of Manchester.”

But the move to encrypt police radio transmissions has raised the concern of media, social media and freelance journalists. Media outlets often rely on radio broadcasts to arrive at a crime scene or accident on a timely basis.

http://www.unionleader.com/safety/M...-nefarious-behind-city-radio-silence-09152016

 

[drgrant]

Scanners are pretty much fast becoming worthless except in the smallest of towns. A lot of the interesting stuff goes over a cell phone or a mobile terminal anyways. Actual encrypted RF links are just frosting on the turd cake.

I remember years ago I simply removed Lunenburg PD from my scanner because once they put computers in the cars, they basically stopped saying anything interesting over the
radio.

-Mike

 

[BenDover]

They encrypt their coms that have been out in the open for decades while lobbying against encryption for your personal devices...

 

[Kevin_NH]

Facebook has a longer version, any other links to the officialpress-release in a non-facebook location?

MPD Issues Press Release On Radio Silencing Already Under Way

Manchester Police Department Announce New City Wide Radio System

The Manchester Police Department would like to take the opportunity to inform you of the new change in our radio system. Acquiring the new city wide radio system has been a long process, but we are currently up and running with some of the installations still underway. We have been asked by numerous media outlets about the change, and the reason for the new system installation.

First and foremost, our old system had simply become obsolete. We were no longer able to obtain new parts for the system which prevented us from making repairs and keeping the system up and running efficiently. We looked at several options and after the bidding process was complete the manufacturer chosen was Motorola. Our new system is state of the art digital technology, which is cutting edge and quickly becoming the norm in our profession. The radio we have chosen is a Motorola APX7000L, which is a top notch product in the industry. Several questions have arisen, due to the encrypted transmissions, known to many of you as “coded”. This is the technology that is being used across the country by many police agencies. Regardless of the name brand chosen, the digital technology is what is being used by manufacturers.

We understand the questions regarding the encrypted transmissions, making it impossible for people to listen to our broadcasts on scanners and phone applications; we can assure you that this decision was not made in haste. The decision to utilize the encrypted or “coded” feature was made for several reasons. As a police agency, we broadcast very sensitive information over our radios. When we talk about sensitive information, we are not just referring to officer safety issues; we are talking about privacy issues as well. With our old system, we had the “coded” feature that we were not able to use as often as we would have liked; this was due to poor reception and the poor sound quality. The new Motorola system does not have these issues, making it more efficient for our needs. When we transmit a medical call, a criminal check, a juvenile or adult name that may be a victim to a crime, that information and identity should be protected. The Manchester Police Department takes the protection of citizens privacy very seriously and this played a big part in our decision making process. Regarding officer safety, which is obviously a top concern, this played a part in our decision making process as well. Over the years, we did not have the ability to utilize “coded” transmissions all the time, our new system now allows us to have the ability to protect our officer’s safety by using the “coded” feature. The use of the “coded” system allows our officers to respond to events and call in their locations without the concern of some people following our officers around and some even interfering with the officers duties. Given the national narrative regarding police officers and the attacks on them, this was an important factor in our decision.

Some of the concerns that have been brought forward involve the transparency of our agency and what the public is not able to hear with a scanner or phone applications. We can assure you that our decision had absolutely nothing to do with trying to hide any type of nefarious activity. Our reasons, as stated above were to provide an updated radio system, protect the publics privacy, and protect our officers as they work day in and day out to provide a service for the City of Manchester.

So yeah, they did it to keep the press and the rest of the public from hearing what the police are saying.

 

[Carl in Ct]

So how long until that gets hacked and their $5.8 million radio system is sent back to 1970's CB radio chatter? 10-4 good buddy!

 

[noxin]

If they have nothing to hide....

 

[Kevin_NH]

Cracking APCO Project 25

So how long until that gets hacked and their $5.8 million radio system is sent back to 1970's CB radio chatter? 10-4 good buddy!

P25 (also known as APCO-25, the most common standard for municipal digital radio) is a pretty robust standard, but there are efforts underway to find flaws and write decoders. So far, there's been interesting progress towards decoding unencrypted P25 on cheap SDR hardware, and also a few minor vulnerabilities found, but no magic bullet.

In general, most of the success in obtaining clear audio access to encrypted digital radio (P25 or otherwise) have been due encryption key management failure (aka laziness by the administrators) -- radios get stolen or "lost", and action isn't taken to mitigate the risk.

If you're near Manchester and interested in the topic, PM me.

 

[Carl in Ct]

Interesting. I'm not near Manchester NH and not really wanting to hack into anything. I was just being a sarcastic jerk because it seems someone is always able to hack into stuff if they want to and the more expensive the system the better they seem to like the challenge.

 

[drgrant]

So how long until that gets hacked and their $5.8 million radio system is sent back to 1970's CB radio chatter? 10-4 good buddy!

They don't even care, if it makes it annoying to do and locks out 90% of the people listening, most won't bother.

Some departments in NH went digital but left it unencrypted so you can still listen with the right gear. Manch might be the first one to go full retard, though.

-Mike

 

[Zappa]

P25 (also known as APCO-25, the most common standard for municipal digital radio) is a pretty robust standard, but there are efforts underway to find flaws and write decoders. So far, there's been interesting progress towards decoding unencrypted P25 on cheap SDR hardware, and also a few minor vulnerabilities found, but no magic bullet.

In general, most of the success in obtaining clear audio access to encrypted digital radio (P25 or otherwise) have been due encryption key management failure (aka laziness by the administrators) -- radios get stolen or "lost", and action isn't taken to mitigate the risk.

If you're near Manchester and interested in the topic, PM me.

It was explained to me that this is APCO-25 Phase 2, which uses a very narrow 6.25 kHz channel spacing and a TDMA standard, giving it forward error correction and MUCH better audio quality, sounding more like DMR. APCO-25 itself is already old technology and crappy audio quality has always been a huge negative, I'm surprised so many agencies have suffered with it this long.
I have an XTS 3000 (VHF) and it's horrible to listen to, it sits on my desk and I don't even bother turning it on unless I hear sirens in my neighborhood, but it does work great on 2M analog.

 

[Kevin_NH]

Followup article in UnionLeader, "No radio silence for NH state police":

When asked for specific instances of Manchester radio transmissions that endangered officers or prompted complaints about privacy violations, Assistant Chief Carlo Capano said he would no longer comment on the statement.

He said interference has happened in the past, but he would give no specifics.

In Hooksett, Police Chief Peter Bartlett said he would not want to encrypt all police calls. He said the public has always listened in to police calls with scanners, and he tells his officers that any radio call — even encrypted calls — have a potential to be a public record.

In Nashua, Police Chief Andrew Lavoie said a recent upgrade gave the police the ability to encrypt all broadcasts, but they have not done so.

“That’s how it is here. We certainly can (do it),” he said. “I can totally see why that’s something (Manchester) considered and ended up doing.”

 

[xtry51]

It's not hard to imagine how this is just another way for them to cover things up when they're doing shit that's illegal.

Love how the old "If you're not doing anything wrong, you've got nothing to hide!" doesn't apply to cops either.


We all know the only reason they are doing it is so they can get away with everything they aren't supposed to be doing. Hence not a single example given.

 

[sean128]

I wonder before how long before a few media outlets get together and file a lawsuit. Public Safety agencies work for us. Outside of Surveillance or Tactical Operations, all police dispatch should be in the clear. Besides, MDT's and Cell Phones give them cheaper versions of encryption.

 

[rscalzo]

The days of the old analog simplex radio systems are long gone. Digital trunked systems are the norm today. Apco 25 and P25 has mandated years ago. Listening using a hundred dollar Radio shack scanner ended years ago. Digital scanners are available but expensive. Encoding has been available for decades. Thinking it's new technology is far from accurate.

So meanwhile, personal data, license and reg info and other sensitive communication relating to sex offenses, domestics and other personal issues is available to all? Years ago KATV, an ABC affli9ate filed a suit over this topic and the suit was tossed.