Hearing sirens? Finding out why could get harder as Central Indiana police encrypt radios

[Tryin']

The radios in my commission worked on State, Local police, INDOT, State Prisons, local fire freqs. Even heard a couple hot air balloons one time. Our radios were programmed by Ra-Comm in Lafayette.

ETA: Most time my communications were with Traffic control center North n Traffic control center South. Or me to responding State officer.

ETA X 2: That was ~ 15 yrs. ago I think that was TMC North n TMC South.

Apologies, I was too broad with my "non-cop" terminology. We have corrections, courthouse, fire, EMA, state, and certain state/local maintenance freqs. "Non-government" would definitely be a better term. I'm going to edit my post.

 

[Peacekeeper3073]

Nothing wrong with general radio traffic being able to be monitored, special details such as SWAT operations and narcotics operations should be encrypted for obvious reasons. Also, most PD's now have MDT's in their units which information can be transmitted securely and some even have handheld devices which do the same when officer is out of the car.

 

[asevans]

Must be to fight domestic terrorist

 

[Shadow01]

The government can’t use the element of surprise to turn this into a police state if you can hear their communications.

 

[FNparabellum]

That's unfortunate. Not only is it a great way to avoid dangerous areas and be on the lookout for criminals but also allows me to gather data and make informed decisions on going places at certain times.

 

[jjohnson878]

my first week in fort wayne i heard a very loud siren and for the love of me couldnt figure out why, i asked the fire department down the road and they said they were testing the tornado alert and they do it once a month

 

[Alamo]

Actually, I’ve been mystified for several decades that police channels were not encrypted, but I guess it was too hard and too expensive to do.

When 9/11 happened it really emphasized that many agencies couldn’t talk to each other due to equipment incompatibilities, variety of frequencies (and not every radio had every freq), or everyone using the same freq at the same time, different 10 codes and radio procedures and a whole host of factors. It was bad enough within among NYC agencies, When you drop in a bunch of Fed and out of state agencies it became a zoo. Every agency grew their radio systems from the ground up and they all differed in various ways.

The DHS instituted a program to get everyone on compatible equipment, frequencies, and protocols. Analog radio was not up to handling all the different agencies even within a single city or state, never mind across the nation. So that led to computer controlled digital radios that could be trunked and organized to keep everyone from stepping on each other while still able to connect. In theory. Oh, and make encryption available.

So national standard was established, and grants were issued for police and fire and emergency departments to use to purchase the new, vastly more expensive equipment. And not just the radios, but the dispatching equipment to be put in 911 centers as well. That’s a whole ‘nother pile of money right there. And then you had to get the whole system programed for your area according to local standards as to who could talk and listen to who. Even my little backwoods, volunteer fire department had to chip in some bucks and buy our new Panasonic digital radios. This was part of a countywide purchase for all the volunteer fire departments, plus installing the dispatching consoles in the sheriff‘s 911 center just took federal grant of several hundred thousand dollars to accomplish. (And of course the sheriff‘s department was doing the same thing for their deputies and radios.) I’m not an active EMT/fire fighter anymore, I do paperwork, but as I understand it, the deputies radios are encrypted, but our fire channels or not. At least for the moment.

As you can imagine, this is taken a couple decades to implement across the US, and I expect the project in the OP is one of the downstream effects of this national effort.

 

[Mij]

In my extremely rural area and the growth of social media, whenever sirens are heard in our area my wife can go to our local face book page and about 85% of the time get eyewitness reports of the witness’s account of thier observations. This of course is only thier opinion of what is observed. And that is only about half correct. Sometimes you can fill in the blanks with the scanner sometimes not. Our base to car (sheriff ) is still open as it also is simultaneously transmitting to ISP, but car to car is encrypted. All fire is still in the open.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Funny story. We vacation here:

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.com

Its a rural farming community with a winery that gets tourists. There is a campground, beaches, and some B&Bs and rental cottages. But no big tourist-y things otherwise. (Some idiot wanted to build a big marina and golf course on the totally undeveloped south east side of the island to bring in the richer tourists, but that part of the island is an alvar. Which is why it is undeveloped. (google "alvar geology" for a laugh at their expense if you arent familiar with the term)

Our last trip up before Covid we took our trash to the transfer station and the kid manning it saw my Baofeng 5R radio in the car. He asked why I had it. I was puzzled why he would ask until he pointed into the "office" (a steel minibarn with a window AC unit.) On the desk was his 5R.

Turns out the fire dept up there uses them. There is a repeater on the island for fire/ems and OPP.

I didnt bother to ask what frequency because its such a quiet, mayberry-esque place. (get caught DWI and you get a ticket/fine and are prohibited from driving the rest of your stay except to leave the island)

 

[Ark]

Funny story. We vacation here:

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.com

Its a rural farming community with a winery that gets tourists. There is a campground, beaches, and some B&Bs and rental cottages. But no big tourist-y things otherwise. (Some idiot wanted to build a big marina and golf course on the totally undeveloped south east side of the island to bring in the richer tourists, but that part of the island is an alvar. Which is why it is undeveloped. (google "alvar geology" for a laugh at their expense if you arent familiar with the term)

Our last trip up before Covid we took our trash to the transfer station and the kid manning it saw my Baofeng 5R radio in the car. He asked why I had it. I was puzzled why he would ask until he pointed into the "office" (a steel minibarn with a window AC unit.) On the desk was his 5R.

Turns out the fire dept up there uses them. There is a repeater on the island for fire/ems and OPP.

I didnt bother to ask what frequency because its such a quiet, mayberry-esque place. (get caught DWI and you get a ticket/fine and are prohibited from driving the rest of your stay except to leave the island)

Nod knowingly and show him your Feng Gang tattoo.

 

[TheGrumpyGuy]

my first week in fort wayne i heard a very loud siren and for the love of me couldnt figure out why, i asked the fire department down the road and they said they were testing the tornado alert and they do it once a month

Only once a month? Since forever and a day down here in Indy that test gets run every Friday at 11am, like clockwork

 

[kiddchaos]

Would be difficult.

How To Decrypt A Radio Frequency – American Radio Archives And Museum

 

[Mij]

Would be difficult.

How To Decrypt A Radio Frequency – American Radio Archives And Museum

Respectfully, ….. Hacking is Hacking, rather a radio or computer. And today it (to me anyway) appears almost anything can be hacked. Look to the military or .gov to see how easy it is.

The radio and computer world, along with a lot of other disciplines have been enthusiast driven. Hobbiest if you will.

If you want to see or hear it, and you are driven, you can/will see or hear it. It’s only time or money. JMO.